Local health authorities raised concern over the reported 6-fold increase in dengue fever cases in the city for the first eight months of this year compared to the same period last year.
Donabel Tubera-Panes, Medical Officer IV and head of the City Health Services Office’s Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CHSO-CESU), disclosed that from January 1 to August 30, 2021, a total of 891 dengue fever cases was recorded from the various barangays compared to the only 124 cases reported during the same period last year.
She claimed that the age range of the dengue fever cases in the city is from 1 month to 90 years old with a median of 26 years.
Further, Panes claimed that majority of the dengue fever cases are males which represent 53.1 percent of the cases while 13 percent of the cases belong to the 15-19 age group.
The medical officer added that for the reckoning period, there were 8 reported dengue-related deaths: an 18-year old female from Camp 8 barangay; a 3-year old male from Camp 8 barangay; an 11-year old male from Loakan Proper; a 65-year old female from Victoria Village; a 15-year old male from Sto. Tomas Proper; a 47-year-old male from Upper Quirino-Magsaysay barangay; a 16-year old male from Honeymoon barangay and a 6-year old female from Engineers’ Hill barangay.
According to her, there were clustering of cases in some barangays in the city, particularly, BGH Compound, Camp 8, Camp 7, Pinsao Proper, Brookside, Camdas Subdivision, Asin road, Loakan Liwanag, Irisan, Sto. Tomas Proper, Loakan Proper, City Camp Proper, St. Joseph Village, Poliwes, Lower Quirino Hill, San Antonio Village, Hillside, San Luis Village, Lower Magsaysay, Fairview, Aurora Hill Proper, San Vicente, Guisad Central, Happy Hallow, Bakakeng Norte/Sur, Pinsao Pilot Project, Atok Trail, Kias and Bakakeng Central.
Based on the 5-year dengue fever data for the city from January to December, there were some 2,808 cases reported in 2016, 500 cases in 2017, 434 cases in 2018, 839 cases in 2019 and 162 cases in 2020 while there were already 891 cases for the first 8 months of this year.
Panes stipulated that dengue fever has established a cyclic trend where the number of cases drastically increase every 3 to 4 years, thus, it is considered that for this year, dengue fever cases are expected to significantly increase pursuant to the past trend.
She urged residents, especially in the barangays that have reported clustering of cases, to sustain the practice of the search and destroy the breeding places of dengue carrying mosquitoes, seek early medical attention when experiencing symptoms, employ self-protection measures such as the wearing of long-sleeved clothes.
(Photo courtesy by Joseph Manzano)
