LOW DENGUE CASES. The Sangguniang Panlungsod convenes to declare Iloilo City under a state of calamity due to the dengue outbreak in this July 2019 photo. City Health Office officer-in-charge Dr. Annabelle Tang on Wednesday (April 6, 2022) said from January to March 19, the city has only 13 cases, which they hoped will no longer increase to break the three-year cycle. (PNA file photo)
ILOILO CITY – The Iloilo city government is looking forward to keeping its lowest number of dengue fever cases and also breaking the cycle of a hike in patients seen every three years.
In an interview Wednesday, Dr. Annabelle S. Tang, officer-in-charge of the City Health Office (CHO), said that this year, they have recorded 13 cases with no deaths from January 1 until March 19, a decrease of 82 percent, compared with 72 cases in the same period last year.
The 13 cases were monitored in barangays Bonifacio in Arevalo district; Mabolo-Delgado and Rizal Pala Pala II in City Proper; San Pedro, Balabago, Buntatala, Cubay, and Tabuc Suba in Jaro; MacArthur, La Paz; Bakhaw, PHHC (Housing) 17, and Guzman Jesena in Mandurriao; and Loboc in Lapuz.
The patients are six months to 55 years old but most of the cases are children aged one to 10.
“We prepared for this. We are on alert mode because it increases every three years,” Tang said.
She said they learned to be proactive from their experiences during the 2019 outbreak.
Back in 2019, Iloilo City has 3,345 cases with 16 deaths, 268 with two deaths in 2020, and 343 with zero casualties in 2021.
Following the outbreak, the CHO created four misting teams composed of 50 personnel who were deployed to the field to look for and destroy mosquito-breeding sites and distribute dengue-prevention leaflets.
Mayor Jerry Treñas also distributed knapsack sprayers to barangays and government offices and supplied them with chemicals that they can use to destroy adult mosquitoes.
Barangays with cases were informed of their status and together with concerned offices of the city government, the houses with patients are inspected.
A task force that handles information and education campaigns was also created.
“We are aggressive, unlike before when we were reactive. We are now proactive,” Tang said.
She said with people staying in their homes due to the health pandemic also allowed them to do cleanup activities, thus destroying the breeding places of mosquitoes.
Tang said while she is not claiming that they were able to break the three-year cycle, she hoped that it has been quashed since cases in the city are no longer increasing.
“We have no clustering, which means there are no cases in the succeeding two to three weeks, and we have no hotspots or deaths for the four consecutive weeks. We have a very nice picture,” she said. (PNA)
