BAGUIO CITY—The Cordillera office of the Department of Health (DoH-CAR) reported a six-percent rise in the number of dengue fever cases regionwide for the first ten months of 2016, including 20 deaths so far.
The total number of cases hit 10,003 compared to 9,438 cases during the similar period last year, said Dr. Lakshmi Legaspi, DoH-CAR regional director.
Only 12 people died from dengue from January to October 2015, Legaspi added.
Overall, dengue cases in the region have decreased below the epidemic threshold, Legaspi said, but “there is still a need for people to be vigilant against this illness in their places.”
Dengue cases in Benguet rose 132 percent to 4,086 compared to 1,760 in the 10-month period last year, followed by Baguio City, which reported a 110-percent increase with 2,804 cases this year so far.
Ifugao this year has 973 cases, up 34 percent, while Kalinga reported a drop of 72 percent to just 650 dengue cases. Abra’s cases also fell 63 percent to 360 dengue victims in 2016.
Areas outside the Cordillera Administrative Region recorded a 57-percent drop to 307 cases, Apayao’s dengue victims fell 54 percent to 414, and Mountain Province cases dropped 42 percent to 409.
Patients nine to 96 years old contracted dengue in the region, with a median age of 21 years old, while men made up over half (53.7 percent) of the cases.
Clustering of dengue cases was noted in some barangays in Baguio, Benguet and Mountain Province, thus DoH-CAR encouraged continuous cooperation and coordination of all sectors to help boost the 4S campaign against Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika and Japanese encephalitis.
The regional office also urged local officials to conduct a weekly cleanup drive, especially in areas that have observed clustering of the mosquito-borne diseases for almost two weeks.
Legaspi reminded the public to observe cleanliness inside and outside their houses, especially in getting rid of clear and stagnant water, which are breeding grounds for the day-biting mosquitoes that transmit the virus to humans.