Dengue cases climb in Soccsksargen, Eastern Visayas

The provincial health office in Negros Occidental raises alarm over the number of deaths related to dengue in the province. —PNA file photo

KORONADAL SOCCSKSARGEN, Philippines — Soccsksargen and Eastern Visayas have recorded a sharp rise in dengue cases and combined death toll of 104 that was causing concern among health authorities in the two regions.

Dengue cases in Soccsksargen—composed of the provinces of South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City—has caused 79 deaths from January to October and feared to breach epidemic records by the end of the year, the Department of Health (DOH) in the region said.

Eastern Visayas, on the other hand, saw a 314-percent rise in dengue patients with 25 deaths since the start of this year but many of these cases may be attributed to late reporting, the region’s health officials said.

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The Soccsksargen health office (DOH 12) reported a total of 20,369 dengue cases in the region as of Oct. 26, surpassing the figures during the 2016 epidemic year and just around 1,000 below the record 21,000 cases in 2019.

Royfrextopher Boholst, the DOH-12 mosquito-borne diseases coordinator, said on Monday that the dengue cases from January to October were 47 percent higher than the over 13,850 cases recorded in the same period last year.

Epidemic year

“Year 2024 is again another epidemic year for dengue in Soccsksargen since we still have two months left and we fear that the number would breach the mark,” he said in the agency’s radio program “Talakayan para sa Kalusugan.”

Of the total deaths, 41 were from Cotabato, 12 in South Cotabato, 11 in General Santos City, nine in Sultan Kudarat and six in Sarangani.

Cotabato also posted the highest number of cases with 6,911; followed by South Cotabato, 5,132; Sultan Kudarat, 3,253; Sarangani, 2,669; and General Santos City, 2,404.

Boholst said 12,540, or 62 percent of the cases, were among children and students 19 years old and below.

He said studies showed that 75 percent of dengue infections happened inside households and only 25 percent were traced outside the homes, making it important for homeowners to clean their surrounding of mosquito breeding places.

Late reporting

In Eastern Visayas, cases of the mosquito-borne disease rose to 14,414 from Jan. 1 to Oct. 26 this year, with 25 recorded fatalities, the regional health office (DOH-8) reported.

According to DOH-8, the number represented a staggering 314-percent increase compared to the same period last year, which had 3,485 cases and nine deaths.

From Oct. 20 to Oct. 26 alone, cases rose by 8,720 percent, with 441 reported cases compared to just five in the previous week, said DOH-8 information officer Jelyn Malibago.

Malibago, however, clarified that the rise in cases could largely be due to delayed reporting from their provincial and city health offices.

She said the delay was due to the needed verification process and cleaning of data to ensure that the information falls as dengue cases.