A CONFIRMED case of dengue at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), where thousands of Mandaue City fire victims have temporarily sought shelter, prompted the city’s Health Department to conduct another misting operation there to treat possible breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Anti-dengue misting operations were conducted on all five “camps” to prevent the spread of dengue at the CICC where about 5 thousand victims of a fire that hit Barangays Guizo and Mantuyong had evacuated since March. The victims had been divided into five camps and assigned camp leaders.
Dr. Edna Seno, head of the City Health Department, said that they decided to have all the camps sprayed because of a two-year old fire victim who was rushed to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) last Monday for dengue.
The Mandaue City Health Office recorded 117 dengue cases in the city from January to July this year or more than twice the number of cases for the same period last year which was 57. Seno said that the rise in dengue cases could be attributed to flood waters last July which took days to subside.
Aside from misting operations, Dr. Seno said Mandaue health authorities were beefing up an education campaign to teach residents about dengue prevention.
Over at the CICC, Felix Suico, Jr., head of the Bantay Mandaue-Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO) and the current Camp Commander of the fire evacuees reminded personnel, camp leaders and coordinators to regularly clean up their areas to avoid another case of dengue and other vector-borne diseases.
Suico said that the evacuees need to be reminded to never store water in uncovered containers and to properly throw unused bottles, cans and other wares that can store water.