BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Department of Health (DOH-CAR) reported that dengue fever cases for the first semester of the year dropped extensively by around 82 percent with 604 cases compared to the 3,297 cases reported for the same period last year.
Geeny Anne I. Austria, a nurse at the DOH-CAR’s regional epidemiology and surveillance unit, warned the public not to be complacent with the significant reduction in dengue fever cases because for the past 4 weeks, the RESU documented 100 dengue fever cases regionwide which is considered alarming at this stage of the rainy season.
Of the recorded dengue fever cases, Kalinga had the highest with 180 accounting for 29.8 percent of the cases followed by Benguet with 102 cases or 16.9 percent of the reported cases, Apayao – 75 cases or 12.4 percent, Baguio City – 79 – 13.1 percent, Abra – 51 cases or 8.4 percent, Ifugao – 51 or 8.4 percent, Mountain Province with 14 cases or 2.3 percent and non-CAR provinces with 50 cases or 8.3 percent.
Austria noted 367 males or 60.8 percent of the total number of dengue cases having an age range of 3 months to 92 years old and a median of 19 years old.
She revealed that 1 death was recorded in Baguio City for the first semester of the year compared to the 7 deaths that were recorded regionwide for the same period last year.
While there were 100 dengue cases that were recorded over the past four weeks, Austria claimed the number of dengue cases is still 93 percent lower than the 1,387 dengue cases that were recorded during the same period last year.
Of the said number of cases, 24 cases or 24 percent came from Baguio, 11 cases or 11 percent were from Kalinga, 13 cases or 13 percent were from Abra, 14 cases or 14 percent were from Benguet, 26 cases or 26 percent were from Ifugao, 5 cases or 5 percent were from Apayao and 7 cases or 7 percent were from non-CAR provinces.
She added 56 percent of the affected individuals were males and those infected with the virus had an age range of 3 months to 82 years old with a median of 17 years old.
According to her, an individual can be affected by any of the 4 strains of dengue and those who had already been affected would suffer severe infection of the virus once they will again be affected with the dreaded virus.
Dengue fever is caused by any of the 4 serotypes of dengue virus and that all strains are present in the region.
An infected day biting female Aedes mosquito transmits the viral disease to humans, thus, the need for the public to destroy the breeding ground of the said mosquitoes which are the containers of clear and stagnant water.
Austria claimed over the past 4 weeks, there was clustering of dengue cases were reported in Bulanao, Tabuk City, Kalinga, indicating that the number of dengue fever cases may peak during the rainy season and may reach widespread proportions without preventive measures of control.
The DOH-CAR personnel added dengue fever cases are expected to again increase based on the 5-year CAR Data and as shown the past 4 weeks, cases were noted to increase.
By HENT