ILOILO – To avoid overwhelming Western Visayas hospitals with dengue patients, the Department of Health (DOH) is campaigning for “early case management”.
“Early consultation with the doctor is important to determine if the case is dengue or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) so that correct case management could be done. Both COVID-19 and dengue share similar initial symptoms such as fever,” said Dr. Bea Camille Natalaray, spokesperson of DOH Region 6.
When should a person feeling ill see the doctor?
As early as two days of exhibiting fever, said Natalaray.
So far, according to Natalaray, the healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) in the region remains classified “low risk” at 38.46 percent for COVID-19.
“Importante sa dengue, ma-assess naton maayo ang patient kon need i-admit or pwede nga out-patient case management lang,” said Natalaray.
On the other hand, most of the hospitalized COVID-19 cases are mild and moderate, said Natalaray, and they are deemed as “incident findings”.
The patients are admitted due to other diseases and only turn out positive for COVID-19 upon swab test, Natalaray explained.
Across the region, Natalaray said, there are currently only nine critical cases of COVID-19 in the hospitals.
“Ginabantayan lang naton ang other areas nga gataas ang HCUR,” she said.
This is the reason why RHUs and hospitals have established dengue fast lanes – to assess the status of patients.
As to the number of hospital beds available, Natalaray said hospitals must ideally reserve beds for dengue patients.
Unlike COVID, Natalaray said, there is an existing policy that private and public hospitals must allot a specific number of hospital beds.
“Based on our monitoring sa mga hospitals, iban nag-allocate beds and wards for dengue,” she added.
Meanwhile, DOH-also prepositioned more than 16,000 dengue NS1 kits to screen patients for dengue, to previous provinces and highly urbanized cities in the region through their respective health centers.
Natalaray said there is no specific drug for dengue but only supportive management such as paracetamol for fever, oresol for the patient to be hydrated and IV fluids for admitted patients.
The medical officer also noted that aside from Dengue NS1 kits, the regional health department has also distributed IV fluids and vector-control commodities such as larvicide, insecticide for misting, mosquito nets, among others to provinces and HUCs as augmentation.
Other local government units also have purchased their own anti-dengue commodities.
From Jan. 1 to July 9, Region 6 logged a total of 5,837 cases of dengue with 34 deaths.
This is 423 percent higher compared to the 1,116 cases on the same period last year.
For COVID, the region has 2,040 active cases and 6,056 deaths.
Most of the active COVID cases in the region are either on home or facility quarantine./PN
