BAGUIO CITY – The local government through the City Health Services Office Thursday launched an anti-dengue program dubbed “Juan tireless Day” to help curb the breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitoes in the households in the city’s barangays.
Dra.Donabel Tubera, CHSO medical officer, disclosed under the program, members of the district health and sanitation teams in the barangays will visit households in their areas of jurisdiction to look for unused and stored ties.
Further, the inventoried tires will then be collected by the members of the teams and placed in a staging area where a certain company will buy the good ones at a price of P50 to P100 per tire depending on its condition while the bad ones will be taken for free.
She added funds generated from the sale of the tires will be used by the district health and sanitation teams to implementation of environment and sanitation projects that will strengthen the city’s anti-dengue campaign.
The “Juan tireless Day” program was launched in the Lucban district headed by Dra. Edna Tabo-oy and the district health and sanitation teams were able to initially collect 236 tires from the households in the 24 barangays.
According to her, the health department is targeting some 1,400 tires that will be collected in the different districts in the city hoping to have a significant impact in reducing the breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitoes in the households.
Health workers recently identified tires as one of the major breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitoes because of their ability to store clear and stagnant water.
However, Tubera claimed the district health and sanitation teams will not get the tires which are used by the residents in the propagation of ornamental plants and vegetables provided that they are being used properly so as not to store water where mosquitoes will breed.
She called on residents storing tires in their residences to give these voluntarily to the members of the district health teams.
Dengue fever has already become a year-round illness because of the ability of dengue-carrying mosquitoes to thrive in either dirty or clear and stagnant water stored in various containers.
Tubera claimed the program will be a year-round activity of the district health and sanitation teams as part of the city’s enhanced anti-dengue program enshrined in the dengue control ordinance of the city pursuant to Ordinance No. 66, series of 2016.
With the onset of the rainy season, Tubera again reminded residents to help in preventing the multiplication of dengue-carrying mosquitoes by getting rid of their breeding grounds through the removal of the clear and stagnant water in containers inside or outside their houses.
Dengue has been classified by experts as a dreaded illness caused by the bite of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
By Dexter A. See