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BAGUIO CITY: The Department of Health (DOH) on
Wednesday disclosed that dengue cases in the Cordillera region
increased by 40 percent compared to last year.
Baguio City has the most number
of dengue cases which resulted in the death of a 3-year-old child,
while another child died in La Trinidad, Benguet, said Myrna
Cabotaje, regional director of DOH-Cordillera.
Considering that both Baguio City
and La Trinidad are highly urbanized, Cabotaje said that the rise in
dengue cases may be due to congestion and the unclean environment.
“We are encouraging the
residents here and nearby towns to keep their surroundings clean and
dry, although it is the rainy season we can avoid the spread of
dengue just by keeping canals clean or other places where mosquitoes
thrive,” Cabotaje explained.
Cabotaje said that 1,146 dengue
cases was recorded in the region in 2007, with Baguio City having
the highest number, at 511 dengue cases reported in the city.
Benguet had 197 cases, while Mountain Province had 145, while the
seven towns of the 10 municipalities in the province were declared
high-risk areas.
She said that physicians in
remote municipalities were advised to conduct seminars and to widen
their information drives on the spread of dengue.
Early this year, the Health
department launched the Communication for Behavior Impact program as
a new strategy in fighting dengue and other diseases common to the
rainy season.
The DOH-CAR also distributed
insecticide-treated curtains to about 42 schools as part of the
agency’s effort to reduce the number of dengue cases in the
Cordillera.
Antonio Bautista, chief of the
Health department’s infectious diseases cluster, said the treated
curtains would be distributed to high-risk areas in the region
through the Department of Education.
--Thom F. Picaña
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