Vice Mayor Rama: Comprehensive approach against dengue needed in Cebu City

CDN FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government will need a comprehensive approach to address the dengue problem in the city.

This is what Vice Mayor Michael Rama will aim for when he will meet on Friday, August 8, with representatives from the City Health Department, barangays, and other government agencies to discuss measures to stop the spread of dengue in the city.

Rama, Committee on Health chairman of the City Council, called for the meeting amid the slight rise of dengue cases in the city in July this year or an increase of 17 percent as compared to the cases of July in 2018.

Read more: Dengue cases up 17% in Cebu City; health department records 1,075 cases from January to July 2019

He said that dengue had always been a common issue in Cebu City because of its dense population and dirty waterways.

He also emphasized the role of the barangays in this planned undertaking.

Rama said that he would tap the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) in Cebu City to discuss preventive measures and information dissemination to barangay residents.

“It’s a simple thing (to address dengue), but it must be comprehensive in order to stop the spread of the disease,” said Rama  in a phone interview with reporters.

He said it would be necessary for all barangays to work together to stop the spread of dengue and he would be requesting all barangays to submit a report on the situations of each locality and the measures they have done to address dengue.

Rama said he would want all barangays to report regularly, either in a weekly or monthly basis, the number of cases and number of dengue casualties in their area, so the City Council could determine the need to allocate more resources if necessary.

Councilor David Tumulak, the chairman on disaster risk reduction and management, authored a resolution asking the City Health to submit a report on the rise or drop of dengue cases in Cebu City.

However, Tumulak said he has not received the report yet and hopes to receive it as soon as possible so the council can determine if the City Health can be allocated more funds to treat and prevent dengue.

In the July 2019 report of the Cebu City Health released to CDN Digital, a rise of 17 percent in dengue cases have been recorded from January to July 2019 compared to the same period of time in 2018.

A total of 1075 cases were recorded on July 2019, which is at least 156 cases higher to the 916 cases in 2018.On top of the list is Barangay Guadalupe, which has 97 cases with two deaths in a span of seven months in 2019.

This is followed by Barangay Lahug at 62 cases with no deaths.Barangays Tisa, Labangon, Talamban, Basak San Nicolas, Kalunasan, Mambaling, Apas, Pardo, Mabolo, and Kamputhaw also have high number of dengue cases with recorded deaths.

A total of eight people died in Cebu City in the last seven months of 2019 because of dengue./dbs