ILOILO CITY — The creation of an anti-dengue task force is proposed in each of the 180 villages of Iloilo City in anticipation of the surge of cases since the “three-year cycle of dengue is about to arrive”.
During Tuesday’s regular session of the Sangguniang Panlungod (SP), Councilor Candice Magdalane Tupas, author of the ordinance which seeks for the creation of the task forces, said that group will spearhead the implementation of dengue control and prevention program.
She recalled that in 2016, the city government also passed a resolution establishing a clean-up day every week to prevent dengue.
“It is endemic but what we want to happen is to decrease the incidence of dengue patients in the city. We lost lives due to dengue. We don’t have a treatment yet; it’s only supportive treatment meaning proper hydration,” she said.
Tupas, a doctor by profession, said the only way to take out mosquito-borne disease is to “prevent dengue through control and prevention program and cleaning up barangays”.
A report from the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU) of the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) Western Visayas showed that since January 1 until March 9, Iloilo City has 347 cases with two deaths.
The city recorded a 382 percent increase in cases with 72 cases and zero deaths in the same period last year.
The two deaths recorded this year included an eight-year-old boy from Barangay San Isidro, Jaro and a six-year old girl from Barangay North Fundidor in Molo district.
Earlier, the DOH-CHD 6 has called on for an enhanced 4S to combat dengue as cases continue to rise in Western Visayas.
RESU data showed that as of March 9, the region has a total of 3,984 cases with 20 deaths, an increase of 140 percent when compared with the 1,663 cases and eight deaths for the same period last year.
The 4S strategy includes search and destroy; observe self -protection measures; seek early consultation and say yes to fogging.
