DENGUE UPDATE. Department of Health-Central Visayas senior health program officer Ma. Michelle Acosta gives an update on the dengue situation in the region, March 19, 2019. (Photo by Luel Galarpe)
CEBU CITY -- As the number of dengue cases continues to rise, the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) has started distributing curtains treated with anti-mosquito chemicals to different local government units (LGU) in the region.
Maria Michelle Acosta, DOH-7 senior health program officer, told the Philippine News Agency on Tuesday that the Central Visayas Center for Health Development recently delivered rolls of curtains to the LGUs to supplement their anti-dengue activities.
“We distributed the curtains to help us combat the spread of the disease because Central Visayas continues to be the No. 1 region with the most number of dengue cases in the country,” Acosta said.
The senior health program officer said the curtains are intended to be distributed to schools, especially in areas where incidence of dengue is high.
Acosta said they have sent at least 20 rolls of curtains each to LGUs or rural health units (RHU) where numerous dengue cases have been recorded.
However, the DOH-7 has received reports that some LGUs have not apportioned the curtains to their intended recipient schools yet.
“We are asking the concerned LGUs and RHUs to please immediately distribute the curtains among the schools in their respective areas,” pleaded Acosta.
The number of dengue cases in the region has reached 5,339 with 33 deaths, covering the period from January 1-March 16 this year.
Meanwhile, another baby boy in Cebu City succumbed to measles.
Ruff Vincent Valdevieso, nurse at the DOH-7 Local Health Support Division, said the latest fatality was a 5-month-old male infant from Barangay San Nicolas, Cebu City.
The baby boy, who died last week at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, was the fourth recorded death due to measles in Cebu City and the 10th in Cebu Province since January this year.
There are now 1,032 measles cases in the region with 10 deaths. The other recorded fatalities were one each in the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Carcar and the towns of Consolacion, Moalboal, Pinamungajan, and San Francisco on Camotes Island. (PNA)
