Authorities Move to Contain Dengue

MANILA, Philippines — Local government units and other government agencies around the country have beefed up efforts, including a massive information drive, in an effort to contain dengue cases.

In Muntinlupa, local health officials inspected Wednesday swimming pools in an exclusive subdivision that may become being breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

This as the number of dengue cases in Muntinlupa rose by 35 to 293 from 258 last week, according to Dr. Edilinda Patac, city health officer. Five deaths were reported.

The 293 dengue cases from January to August this year in Muntinlupa is 396 percent higher compared to the 59 total cases last year.

While there is no dengue outbreak declared in Muntinlupa, officials are not taking risks and have implemented several measures to prevent the further spread of the disease.

Community clean-ups started on Wednesday with the aim of destroying breeding grounds of mosquitoes.

In Country Homes Subdivision in Putatan, workers cut grass, cleaned the surroundings and removed trash. Larviciding, fogging and space spraying will also be done in barangays.

The city government also launched a bloodletting drive and asked employees to donate blood for dengue victims. The aim is to collect about 1,000 bags of blood.

The City Health Office, upon the orders of Mayor Aldrin San Pedro, earlier activated dengue fast lanes in all barangay health centers to prioritize those who show symptoms of dengue such as fever.

In addition, the city government will provide free CBC and platelet count tests for all indigent patients and Philhealth-sponsored families.

Free medicine and oral rehydrating solutions will also be given to indigent patients.

Patac said they will request the Department of Health for Olyset, or permethrin-treated nets, that is designed to kill mosquitoes. The nets will be installed on classroom windows in public schools, she said.

In Quezon City, Dr. Antonietta Innumerable, head of the health department, said with the huge number of dengue cases resulting in 29 deaths this year has prompted her department to strengthen anti-dengue efforts with a massive information drive especially in the areas now considered as dengue hotspots.

She noted that the city government has intensified its emergency mosquito control with the distribution of larvae traps to schools and various barangays and spraying and preventive fogging on known dengue hotspots in the city.

Innumerable reminded the public to maintain clean households and healthy surroundings as the disease usually peaks from July to September with the mosquito eggs being left on the soil and plant leaves after the lean dengue months.

With confined and admitted dengue patients on the rise in public hospitals, Mayor Herbert Bautista has turned over 79 folding beds and ten electric fans for the use at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) in Project 4.

Tadeo Palma, secretary to the mayor, said that barangay officials were now tasked to personally visit every house in the dengue-prone areas of the city and distribute leaflets to complement the vast information drive of the city health department personnel.

Barangays Bagbag, San Bartolome and Commonwealth are the Quezon City areas with the most number of dengue cases with 227, 211 and 187 respectively.

However, Barangay Batasan hills with 178 dengue cases registered four deaths due to dengue the largest number in all of the city’s 142 barangays.

Palma noted that the recorded rise in dengue cases in the city may be also traced to the more efficient reporting of dengue cases by public hospital representatives.

In the case of the Quirino Medical Memorial Center, Palma said that the closure of the Eulogio “Amang’’ Rodrguez Hospital in Marikina City led the increase in the number of dengue patients in the hospital as residents from the city and other neighboring cities and towns of Rizal afflicted with the disease brought them to the Quezon City hospital.

With the influx of patients from other cities and towns, three to four dengue patients being treated at the Quirino Medical Memorial Center are now sharing one bed.

At the district level, Barangay Bahay Toro in the city’s first district and Barangay Matandang Balara and Pansol are considered to be dengue hotspots.

The city’s second district with a population of 1.8 million which is more than 50 percent of the city’s entire population has long been considered a dengue hotspot.

Quezon City has a population of 2.68 million compared to Manila and Makati City with populations of 1.7 million and 500, 000 respectively.


PhilHealth package

Following the surge in dengue cases in the country, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) announced that it is now including dengue cases in its new case rate packages.

In a statement, Dr. Rey B. Aquino, president and CEO of PhilHealth, said

The case rate system will be implemented in Dengue I cases belonging to Grades 1 and 2 worth P8,000 and Dengue II cases belonging to Grades 3 and 4 worth P16,000.

These new rates are applicable for all types of members, Aquino said. “These include those who are employed in the private and government sectors, the lifetime members, the overseas workers, the individually paying members and the sponsored program members,” he added.

In a related development, a migrant advocate group has started mobilizing relatives of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) to donate blood.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Monterona said they have been receiving request for assistance from at least four Middle East-based OFWs to find blood donors after their children were infected with dengue.

“Two of the OFW’s children are from Bulacan province, while the others in Metro Manila,” Monterona noted.

“As a reply to the request by the OFWs whose children have been infected with dengue and to help other dengue victims, too, we are urging our fellow OFWs to convince their families and relatives in the Philippines to donate blood and proceed to the nearest Philippine National Red Cross office,” he said.

Aside from blood donation, the Migrante coordinator also urged relatives of OFWs to help in the information drive in reducing the risk of dengue in their communities.

He also asked the government allocate more fund for its health services to assist indigent families especially in times of outbreaks of diseases like dengue.

Meanwhile, a massive information campaign against the dengue had been redoubled in the different places of the five provinces and six cities in Northeastern Mindanao (Caraga region).

Aside from the Department of Health (DoH-Caraga), Department of Education (DepEd-13), line agencies of the government and media outlets, personnel from the different health offices and rural health units, local government units (LGU’s), and non-government organizations had contributed respective resources to prevent and control dengue.

In the no non-sense information drive, the DoH advises the general public to cover water drums, and water pails at all times to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, always replace water in flower vases, clean all water containers once a week, scrub the sides well to remove eggs of mosquitoes sticking to the sides, clean gutter of leaves and debris to that rain water will not collect as breeding places of mosquitoes, old tires used as roof support should be punctured or cut to avoid accumulation of water, collect and dispose all unusable tin cans, bottles and other items that can collect and hold water, and above all practice to clean all the surroundings of your respective residence.

The DoH advises all persons to immediately seek consultation in hospitals or clinics if they feel the following: sudden onset of high fever which may last 2 to 7 days, joint and muscle pain and pain behind the eyes, skin rashes or red tiny spots on the skin called petechiae, nose bleeding when fever starts to subside, abdominal pain, vomiting of coffee-colored matter and dark-colored stools.

“Everybody, especially parents in their respective homes must help to prevent the spread of the dengue disease,” said Region XIII DoH Regional Director Leonita P. Gorgolon.

In the latest tally received from the different places in the Caraga region, one case of death was reported in Sibagat town, in Agusan del Sur, and three in Surigao City. Fatality rate is only 0.65% for the whole region, reported DoH. (From reports by Sarah Hilomen-Velasco, Jonathan Hicap, Chito Chavez, Samuel P. Medenilla and Mike Crismundo)