By Roel Amazona/PNA
PALO, Leyte — The Department of Health (DOH) regional office here is stepping up its watch in Northern Samar for possible surge of dengue fever cases as a result of massive flooding last week.
Rommel Francisco, DOH Northern Samar provincial health team leader, said in an interview Tuesday that 18 of the 24 towns have been vulnerable to dengue outbreak after Tropical Depression Usman struck the province.
The DOH has been checking the towns of Lope de Vega and Catarman for possible spread of this mosquito-borne disease especially that residents are still cleaning their surroundings of flood debris.
“The reason why we focus our monitoring in these two towns because there are still people inside evacuation centers. Debris can be found anywhere, providing more breeding grounds for mosquitoes,” Francisco told reporters.
As an initial intervention to affected residents, the health department has been distributing mosquito nets and conduct fogging in some areas.
In the entire region, confirmed dengue fever cases in 2018 are up by 106 percent than the previous year.
“This is the second highest number of cases in the region since 2010 wherein the region recorded nearly 10,000 cases last year. In 2010, we had 12,022 dengue cases,” said DOH Eastern Visayas Regional Director Minerva Molon.
Last year, Northern Samar has topped among the six provinces in the region with the most number of dengue fever victims.
The province had accumulated cases of 1,764, which accounts for 18 percent of the region’s 9, 784 cases. Of the 50 dengue deaths, 11 of them were from Northern Samar province.
Most of the victims are males with eight days old as the youngest and 90 years old as the eldest.
“Patients who have been experiencing dengue symptoms should not be complacent. They have to consult a physician and monitor their health situation 10 days after they had fever,” Molon said.
Dengue fever is marked by an onset of sudden high fever, severe headache, and pain behind the eyes, muscles and joints. Some may develop rashes and varying degree of bleeding in various parts of the body.
