PALAYAN CITY – Ranking first in Central Luzon and fifth nationwide on dengue cases is an alarming state for provincial officials, sans declaration of an outbreak notwithstanding, a provincial board member said on Thursday.
The provincial board, upon initiative of 2nd District Board Member Joseph Ortiz, invited officials from the provincial health office in digging out facts on the surge of the mosquito-borne disease in Nueva Ecija.
This as the death of 9-year-old Angeline Sapelino from Barangay Bicos, Rizal, that falls under Ortiz’ district, increased to six the fatalities and 1,920 the numbers of cases in this primarily agricultural province as of July 9, 2012.
“There is a growing fear among our people that we cannot ignore,” Ortiz said.
Dr. Benjamin Lopez, provincial health officer, disclosed that the present figure is higher than the 1,368 bases recorded from January to end-June 2011.
“Last year’s figure is already high, but it’s higher now and we need to be more pro-active in practicing preventive measures as the rainy season comes,” Lopez said.
School-aged people appeared to be more susceptible to the dengue virus with age-group 1 to 10 years old recording 742 and 11 to 20 years old 638. They were followed by 21- to 30 bracket at 256; 31 to 40, 107; 41 to 50,43; 51 to 60, 34; less than one year-old, 31 and over 61,24.
By gender, 1,029 of the patients were male while 891 were female.
The high population density is a big factor in the number of incidence, Lopez said.
Cabanatuan City, the records showed, recorded 504 which was the highest among the five cities and 27 towns of Nueva Ecija. The municipality of Talavera followed with, 123 cases and San Jose City.
Cabanatuan City had two deaths, and one each from Gen. Mamerto Natividad, Pantabangan, Rizal and Talavera.
Asked by Ortiz on the conclusiveness of the cases, Lopez said that only 20 percent of the 1,920 cases was laboratory-tested positive while the rest are recorded based on the new surveillance or reporting system implemented by the Department of Health (DOH).
Lopez meanwhile aired concern over the rising requirement of blood. Immediate treatment to severe dengue cases, he said, requires blood which may not be readily available.
Ortiz said the SP would create measures, as a result of the investigation, to improve information dissemination against the dengue infection.
He said people would be urged to revive the 4 o’clock habit where the public is called to stop from anything they are doing in order to do something against dengue.
Gov. Aurelio Umali, assured the public that several health facilities in the province, particularly the state-run Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center, are ready to treat dengue. “What we need is fast action and enough information,” he said.
