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TACLOBAN CITY – Dengue fever cases in Eastern Visayas continue to rise this week with seven deaths and 1,856 patients downed by mosquito bites from January 1 to June 11 this year, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Wednesday.
DOH regional information officer Jelyn Lopez-Malibago said 102 more cases were recorded between June 5 to 11, lower than the 217 new cases recorded from the last week of May to early June.
“The number of cases this year is 545 percent higher compared to the same period in 2021 when we only had more than 200 cases,” Malibago said.
From January 1 to June 11, deaths have been reported in the towns of Jaro and Ormoc City in Leyte; Taft and Hernani in Eastern Samar; Calbayog City, Samar; and Maasin City and Padre Burgos in Southern Leyte.
Of the 1,863 cases, including deaths, 709 were logged in Leyte province, 570 in Southern Leyte, 202 in Samar, 144 in Eastern Samar, 160 in Biliran, and 78 in Northern Samar.
“With the high cases, we must not forget to do our task in preventing dengue such as doing our '4S' strategy, especially that rainy season has already started,” Malibago said.
The "4S" strategy covers the search and destroy mosquito breeding places, seeking early consultation, self-protection methods, and support fogging/spraying only in hot spot areas, where an increase in cases is registered for two consecutive weeks to prevent an outbreak.
Dengue fever is marked by the onset of sudden high fever, severe headache, and pain behind the eyes, muscles, and joints.
Some may develop rashes and varying degrees of bleeding in different parts of the body.
The health department asked city and town mayors to regularly organize cleanup campaigns focusing on the destruction of mosquito-breeding places in their areas and the conduct of community assemblies in areas with dengue cases. (PNA)
