BAGUIO CITY — Residents of this mountain resort city are advised to keep themselves warm amid the cold weather aggravated by the continuous heavy rains and guard against weather-induced illnesses like dengue and leptospirosis.
City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo is giving the public a “very practical advise, that is, keep ourselves warm.”
“If it’s not necessary to go out, just stay home to prevent being exposed to danger and also to prevent any illness that is caused by the bad weather,” she said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday.
Baguio, the so-called Summer Capital of the Philippines, registered a 16 degree Celsius temperature on Monday. The same coldness is expected in the coming days, especially with the wet surroundings.
During cold weather, Galpo said, the most common illnesses are upper respiratory infection (URI) like cough and colds and influenza.
She said the City Health Office is also monitoring the incidence of dengue.
“Because there is rain, there is also breeding site,” Galpo said, noting that dengue cases in the city are on the rise.
Her office recorded a total of 229 dengue cases from January to August 5 this year with two deaths, higher than the 209 cases posted in the same period last year, but with three deaths.
She said there were “clustering of cases” recorded in some barangays in the city.
She defined clustering as having two or more cases reported in the last four weeks. There were three cases each in barangays Camp 7, Outlook Drive, and Irisan.
Leptospirosis, which arises when their is flooding, is also being monitored.
“(That’s) especially when there is flood, those are the things we have to be careful about. Let us avoid wading in the flood, especially if we have wounds, where the leptospira could enter,” the city doctor said in the Ilocano dialect.
Galpo noted a decrease in leptospirosis cases in the city, though, compared with the same period last year.
“There are four suspected leptospirosis cases in 2018, which are pending laboratory results. There were no deaths recorded,” she said.
In 2017, there were six suspected cases that all turned negative, based on laboratory results. There were no deaths recorded. (Liza Agoot/PNA)
