PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — Palawan remains to be the province with the most number of dengue cases in the Mimaropa Region at already 129 logged during the first quarter of the year, based on the report of the Department of Health-Epidemiology Bureau (DOH-EB).
The culprit behind the high number of dengue cases in the province is due to the use of thin bamboo culms (buho) as choice materials for residential fences, said Romalyn Racho, the health education and promotion officer of the DOH Mimaropa, on Thursday during a Philippine Information Agency (PNA)-hosted Kapihan.
Racho said the DOH is discouraging the use of the material as these are where the larvae of the dengue mosquitoes can thrive.
She said the number of recorded cases is as of April 20, showing Puerto Princesa City as the biggest contributor to the Mimaropa index followed by the municipality of Taytay in northern Palawan.
“For the information of everyone, Palawan is always Top 1 when it comes to dengue cases. According to the EB, Puerto Princesa always logs the highest number of dengue cases in Mimaropa,” Racho said.
However, she did not give the number of dengue cases in the previous year during the forum.
She said that when they toured Puerto Princesa, they discovered that a lot of residents still use thin bamboo culms (buho) as fencing materials, which serve as breeding grounds for dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
“We passed by a few houses on Wednesday where we noted that a lot of the homes are still using bamboos as fencing materials. They are favorite breeding grounds of the mosquitoes that carry dengue, and no matter what strategy we do, as long as you use them, we will not get anywhere if we can’t even do the most basic of all prevention initiatives like removing all their possible breeding grounds,” she said.
Rancho said that the DOH will support any local move that would ban the use of bamboos as fencing materials.
“It will help and the DOH will support if local legislators pass resolutions or ordinances that would ban their use since that will help a lot in preventing dengue from victimizing residents,” Racho added. (Celeste Anna Formoso/PNA)
