ROXAS City – A dengue outbreak has been declared in the province of Capiz.
The declaration took effect after Gov. Esteban Evan Contreras issued an executive order last Friday.
Capiz ranked third with the most number of dengue cases in Western Visayas, with 2,177 cases and 14 deaths as of June 29, records from the Capiz Epidemiological Surveillance and Response Unit of the Provincial Health Office showed.
The number is 771-percent higher compared to only 250 dengue cases with no deaths in the same period last year.
It surpassed that five-year alert and epidemic threshold for dengue cases in Capiz.
Contreras’s executive order enjoined all local government units to institute preventive and control mechanisms on dengue.
Barangays were ordered to conduct simultaneous “Kontra Dengue Day” (village cleanup) every Saturday for eight weeks beginning July 13.
The order also directed the creation of committees and task forces that will intensify the anti-dengue campaign.
It also called for the continuous observance of the 4S strategy against the mosquito-borne disease – searching and destroying mosquito breeding places; self-protection; seeking early consultation; and saying “no” to indiscriminate fogging.
The towns of President Roxas and Pontevedra have recently declared a state of calamity due to dengue. Pontevedra has 213 dengue cases while President Roxas has 181 cases. They both recorded two deaths each.
Roxas City has also declared a dengue outbreak last Tuesday after the number of dengue cases reached 431, 700-percent higher compared to that in the same period last year. The capital city also recorded two deaths, records from the City Health Office showed.
“There is a need to conduct a simultaneously clean-up drive for eight consecutive weeks every Saturday as part of our course of action,” Councilor Cesar Yap, chairman of Committee on Health, told Panay News.
Records from the Provincial Health Office showed the following figures of dengue cases in each municipality in Capiz as of June 29:
* Dao – 232
* Pontevedra – 213
* Panay – 198
* Tapaz – 169
* Pontevedra – 156
* Ivisan – 145
* Mambusao – 94
* Panitan – 80
* Dumalag – 78
* Jamindan – 71
* Sigma – 69
* Sapian – 54
* Dumarao – 45
* Maayon – 40
* Pilar – 40
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease characterized by a high fever (40°C/104°F) accompanied by two of these symptoms: severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains, nausea, vomiting, and swollen glands or rash.
Symptoms usually last for two to seven days, after an incubation period of four to 10 days after the bite from an infected mosquito.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary vector of dengue. The virus is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female mosquitoes. (With World Health Organization/PN
