9 E. Visayas schools to get anti-dengue nets

Tacloban City — The Department of Health in Eastern Visayas (DOH-8) has identified nine elementary schools in the region as pilot areas in the agency’s campaign against dengue using a chemically treated net.

The schools were selected to receive rolls of Olyset net due to the high incidence of dengue cases last year, said Leonido Olobia, DOH regional dengue program coordinator.

Olobia, however, could not give the number of dengue cases reported in the nine schools.

The Japan-made Olyset net roll, which is made of polyethylene, contains permethrin, a chemical that can repel and kill dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Each net roll, which measures 1.5 meters by 25 meters, costs around P7,400.

Olobia said the Olyset net would be used either as window screens or curtains in the classrooms.

The pilot schools are San Jose Central School in Tacloban (38 net rolls); Palo I Central Elementary School in Palo town, Leyte (22 rolls); Matobato Elementary School in Calbayog City, Samar (15 rolls); Ormoc Central School in Ormoc City, Leyte (54 rolls); Tomas Oppus Central School in Maasin City, Southern Leyte (33 rolls); Naval Elementary Central School in Naval town, Biliran (33 rolls); Guiuan Elementary Central School in Guiuan town, Eastern Samar (25 rolls); Catbalogan I Central Elementary School in Catbalogan City, Samar (24 rolls) and Catarman I Central Elementary School in Catarman, Northern Samar (35 rolls).

Olobia said they started installing the Olyset net since the first week of May.

“This will keep the dengue-causing mosquitoes from entering the classrooms and stop our school children from getting bites from the Aedes aegypti,” Olobia said.

The education department came up with the program since most of dengue fever victims were schoolchildren, he explained.

Olobia, however, said that cleaning school surroundings remains the best way to stop the spread of the disease. “That is why we still advocate the search and destroy of breeding grounds of mosquitoes. It is still the most effective way in addressing the problem,” he said. INQUIRER