by Sheila Covarrubias
ZAMBOANGA CITY, May 14, (PIA) - - In a bid to
prevent further rise in the number of dengue cases, the City Health Office has
conducted a massive and simultaneous citywide clean up drive on Saturday (May
11) and has stepped up the implementation of other anti-dengue measures.
City
Health Officer Dr. Rodel Agbulos said barangay officials, volunteers and individual
households showed support and cooperation in the May 11 citywide clean up by
cleaning their respective areas and ridding off possible breeding sites of
dengue-carrying mosquitos.
Agbulos
called on the public to make the cleanup drive a daily habit.
Mayor Celso Lobregat last
week declared a dengue outbreak in Zamboanga in the wake of rising incidences
of the mosquito-borne disease which have reached 774 cases with 9 fatalities
from January 1 to April 30.
The
city government is set to release P553, 000 for the implementation of
anti-dengue measures specifically for the purchase of larvicides and other
chemicals to be used in the campaign. The amount will be taken from emergency
funds.
Dengue
is a mosquito-borne and infectious disease that is manifested initially with
fever. The dengue carrier mosquito, called aedes aegypti, is a day-biting
mosquito which lays eggs in clear and stagnant water found in flower vases,
cans, rain barrels, old rubber tires and many others.
“The
basic and primary thing to do in cases like this is the cleanup and we are now
in the state of preparing our plan of action”, the City Health Officer said
during a press briefing Wednesday where Mayor Lobregat declared the outbreak.
Recently,
Agbulos met with representatives from different health facilities to include
Zamboanga City Medical Center and private hospitals and other health personnel
to discuss about the possibility of setting up a fast lane for dengue fever in
hospitals.
The Department of Health, according to Agbulos
has also pledged support to the intensified anti-dengue drive in the City.
The
CHO will target the top 20 barangays with the most number of dengue cases
including those barangays where rivers and cemeteries are located.
“We
appeal to the media and our barangay officials to help us in this campaign”,
Dr. Agbulos said stressing anew that the city government through the CHO cannot
succeed in the effort without the all out support of the communities and the
individual households.
The
clean up drive has to be massive and simultaneous to ensure elimination of
breeding sites of dengue carrier mosquitoes. The effects, however, will not be
immediate but after at least after a week, Agbulos said.
He
said the abrupt change in weather is one of the reasons for the emergence of
dengue carrier mosquitoes. All other
cities are affected by the dengue disease and that no amount of campaigns to
decrease the number of cases, the same cannot be controlled.
“As
early as January we have been going out to the barangays and doing our advocacy
campaigns but no matter how much efforts we exert if the people themselves do
not move and act, all these will be useless”, he stressed. “It is the work of
the community or the people, the move should come from them”.
Meanwhile,
the city health officer said the city government has acquired dengue laboratory
kits which can determine if a patient has dengue after 3 days of continuous
fever.
High
grade fever, headache, exhaustion, severe joint and muscle pain, swollen glands
and rashes are characteristics of dengue.
On
the other hand, the DOH through Dr. Joshua Brillantes revealed that there are
four types of dengue strains or virus in the city and that specimens have
already been sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) to
determine the types or classifications.
“We
need not be threatened or alarmed by the disease, as long as we do our part to
prevent and control this disease”, Brillantes said. (JPA/SC/CIO/PIA9-ZBST)
