No dengue ‘outbreak’ in Cebu City yet

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Health (CHD) does not consider the current dengue situation in the city as an outbreak yet.

Doctor Ilya Tac-an of the CHD said that the current spike of dengue cases is still relatively lower than in 2019, which reached over 1,900 for the entire year.

There are currently 1,254 cases of dengue in the city and continues to rise as the CHD intensifies testing in the barangays.

However, Tac-an notes that there is an increase in the first part of the year which has rightfully drawn concern from the health agency and the city government.

“Expected na nga this year mosaka pero karon earlier lang siya. It could be nga nagbagyo ta nya daghang mga stagnant water nabilin,” said the doctor.

Tac-an also revealed that there is a clustering of cases observed in the current spike of dengue, which means that cases are detected in close proximity to another within a barangay.

Doctor Jeffrey Ibones, the head of the CHD, said that the trend is expected to rise higher because the Department of Health (DOH) has instructed the health offices to test patients for dengue down to the barangays.

“Mosaka pa gyod na kay dili naman lang ang mga giadmit nga dengue patients, ato napud giapil ang nasa community,” he said.

The CHD now focuses on the top barangays including Guadalupe, Lahug, Tisa, Labangon, and Poblacion Pardo because of their high number of cases, although these are also highly populated barangays.

CHD is coordinating with the barangays, schools, and establishments for the search and destroy operations, information dissemination, misting, and clean-up drives.

“Kung manglimpyo lang gyod ta kanunay, dako kaayo ning tabang sa pagpaubos sa dengue cases,” said Ibones urging the public to cooperate.    /rcg

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