SWEEP THEM CLEAN Residents in Tagbilaran City clean their surroundings on Sunday after cases of dengue spiked in the city and the rest of Bohol province. —Leo Udtohan
MANILA, Philippines — Health and local officials in a number of localities across the country have raised an alert over the continued rise of dengue cases in provinces as they ramped up efforts to prevent more spread of the mosquito-borne disease.
So far, among the provinces that have recorded notable increase in dengue cases since the start of the year were Iloilo, Bohol, Leyte, Southern Leyte and Samar in the Visayas; the provinces in the Cordillera and Tarlac in Luzon; and the Soccsksargen region (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City) in Mindanao.
READ: 7 regions report sharp hike in dengue cases
In the Visayas, cleanup drives were ordered by local government and health officials in Bohol, Maasin City in Southern Leyte, Tacloban City in Leyte and Calbayog City in Samar due to the surge of dengue cases.
Cases of dengue in Maasin reached 375 from Jan. 1 to Aug. 14, affecting 48 of its 70 villages, which prompted the local health board and the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to issue a state of calamity declaration.
Maasin Mayor Nacional Mercado, in a message on Monday, urged residents to clean their surroundings of mosquito breeding sites and to “visit our health-care providers and undergo a rapid diagnostic test for dengue at our urban health center if you develop a fever or exhibit symptoms of dengue.”
In Bohol, dengue cases from Jan. 1 to Aug. 10 reached 4,484, or 361.8 percent higher compared to the same period last year, which had 971 cases, said Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez, acting head of the Bohol Provincial Health Office.
During this period, Bohol reported 13 deaths while only two dengue fatalities were reported over the same period last year, he added.
At least P3 million worth of intravenous fluids had been purchased to be distributed to the 10 province-run hospitals in Bohol to help those afflicted with dengue while nonstructural protein 1 or NS1 kits would be bought to determine if patients were positive of dengue, he said.
Treated curtains, which are infused with mosquito-killing substances, provided by the Department of Health (DOH) were also being distributed to schools in Bohol.
Bohol Gov. Erico Aristotle Aumentado, in a memorandum issued on Aug. 15, ordered the conduct of simultaneous cleanup drives in the province and urged local governments to create or reactivate their Anti-Dengue Brigade.
Fast lanes
The DOH in Eastern Visayas urged all health facilities, both public and private, to establish fast lanes to immediately respond to dengue patients after recording 7,145 cases with 18 fatalities in the region as of Aug. 10.
Health facilities were also instructed to retrain medical personnel involved in managing dengue cases, focusing on prompt detection, appropriate triage and treatment.
Leyte province reported the highest number of cases with 3,172, followed by Samar (2,012), Southern Leyte (837), Eastern Samar (635), Northern Samar (358) and Biliran (131).
In Samar’s Calbayog City, Mayor Raymund Uy ordered a citywide cleanup drive after dengue cases went up to 297 as of Aug. 3.
In Tacloban City, the City Health Office was conducting rounds in barangays for fogging operations and cleanup drives as dengue cases reached 340.
In Western Visayas, the DOH recorded 3,192 dengue cases and eight deaths from Jan. 1 to May 25 this year alone, a 22-percent rise compared to the previous year.
Iloilo has also began considering a declaration of an provincewide dengue outbreak after the Iloilo Provincial Health Office recorded 3,608 cases of the mosquito-borne disease from Jan. 1 to Aug. 3, three times higher than the 981 cases recorded over the same period last year. Six persons also died due to dengue in the province in the first half of 2024 compared to the two fatalities in the entire 2023.
Cordillera
In Luzon, the DOH in Cordillera has so far logged 9,892 dengue infections from January to Aug. 3, which was a 163-percent increase compared to the same period in 2023.
According to the DOH Cordillera office, the most affected barangays are in Baguio City, Benguet province and parts of Mountain Province.
In Baguio alone, 6,038 people were treated for dengue in city hospitals, including out-of-town patients, with 4,850 of them being city residents.
Despite the high numbers, DOH entomologist Alexander Baday indicated that the trend suggested a potential decrease in cases across the provinces in the coming weeks.
Data showed that Benguet recorded 3,874 cases as of Aug. 3, followed by Mountain Province (1,539), Kalinga and its component city Tabuk (566), Apayao (534), Ifugao (511) and Abra (180).
School-age children and young adults have been the most affected, according to Baday.
The Cordillera recorded 22 deaths due to dengue, with the youngest fatality in the 1- to 10-year-old age group and the oldest being 61 years old.
Tarlac was among the first provinces in Luzon to raise an alarm over a rise in dengue cases, after recording 2,168 cases from Jan. 1 to July 27 this year, which was 11 percent higher than those reported over the same period last year, said its provincial health office.
Soccsksargen count
In Cotabato City, three new dengue deaths were recorded at Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) in a span of one month alone as dengue cases continued to rise there, according to a report by the hospital’s Epidemiology Surveillance Unit and the hospital’s health information management department.
The three deaths occurred between July 15 and Aug. 15 and had brought to 16 the number of dengue deaths in the hospital from January to August this year.
As of Aug. 18, only 11 patients remained at the hospital, as the 136 patients who were admitted between July 15 to Aug. 15 had been discharged.
The 136 newly discharged patients brought to 764 the total number of patients admitted for dengue at the hospital since January this year.
Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte recorded the combined total of 360 patients admitted in CRMC in the first eight months of the year, the highest number of dengue patients admitted to the hospital, so far; followed by Cotabato City, with 325 cases, Cotabato province (45), Sultan Kudarat (26) and Lanao del Sur (8).
Soccsksargen health authorities earlier said dengue cases in the region reached 9,000 in the first half of this year, climbing by 44 percent compared to a similar period last year. Of these cases, 32 had resulted in deaths. Most cases were in Cotabato province. —reports from Leo Udtohan, Joey Gabieta, Vincent Cabreza and Edwin O. Fernandez