LUNA, Apayao – Health authorities are closely monitoring a potential dengue outbreak in the province with the prevalence of the continuous heavy rains following the reported more than 2,000 percent increase in dengue fever cases for the first eleven months of 2022.
Dr. Rio Magpantay, regional director of the Cordillera office of the Department of Health (DOH-CAR), claimed that the recorded increase in dengue fever cases in the province in 2022 is alarming which warrants the close monitoring of cases aside from the simultaneous implementation of necessary practical interventions to prevent the further increase in cases that might lead to epidemic levels.
From January 1, to November 30, 2022, Apayao recorded some 1,769 dengue fever cases compared to the 81 cases during the same period in 2021.
Magpantay advised residents experiencing fever over the past 2 days to immediately seek medical attention from the nearest health facility as these centers are equipped with dengue rapid diagnostic kits so health workers can detect their health condition and immediately provide the needed interventions once it will be found that they have contracted the deadly virus.
The DOH-CAR official pointed out that the problem encountered by health workers among individuals who contracted dengue is the failure of the sick to seek medical consultations after their fever was gone during the 2-day period and that they only sought medical attention when their situation already got worst which can even the cause the death of some patients because their situation is already beyond the control of health professionals.
According to him, people experiencing 2 days of continuous fever regardless if their feelings improved should immediately seek medical attention from the nearest health facility for them to be given the appropriate diagnosis instead of waiting for their situation to get worst which might already result to their untimely death if not addressed by the health workers, thus, the importance of seeking early medical consultation for any form of illness.
He noted that most of the dengue-related deaths based on the recent evaluation and assessment of the said deaths were primarily due to late consultations where the patients allegedly waited for their health condition to significantly decline before visiting the health facilities.
During the 11-month period last year, dengue fever cases in the region increased by some 196 percent or from some 5,007 cases from January 1 to November 30, 2021 to a whooping 14,839 cases during the same period last year.
Ifugao also reported more than 500 percent increase in dengue fever cases where its previous 229 cases rose to some 1,506 cases while Kalinga reported more than 400 percent increase with 2,955 cases compared to its previous case load of 637 cases.
Mountain Province also reported more than 100 percent increase in dengue cases with 810 cases for the first 11 months of 2022 compared to the earlier reported 406 cases during the same period in 2021 while Baguio city recorded a 161 percent increase in dengue cases with some 2,914 cases compared to the earlier 1,296 cases. Abra dengue cases also slightly increased from 217 to 248 cases during the said period.
