ILOILO – The Iloilo Provincial Health Office (IPHO) is scheduled to discuss the management of mosquito-borne diseases, particularly dengue and Japanese encephalitis, with 43 municipal health offices (MHOs) and Passi City’s health office.
Health officers, doctors from 13 district hospitals in the province, and infectious disease specialists will meet on June 26, according to IPHO head Dr. Maria Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon. Experts from the Philippine Pediatric Society may also be invited.
“We will invite infectious disease specialists para magbulig sa aton kag maghatag impormasyon on clinical management of dengue and Japanese encephalitis,” Quiñon said yesterday.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection that causes a severe flu-like illness that can sometimes be fatal. Its carriers are day-biting mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti) that live and breed in clean, stagnant water.
According to the World Health Organization, individuals should suspect dengue when a high fever (40 degrees centigrade) is accompanied by two of the following symptoms: severe headache, pain behind the eyes, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands, muscle and joint pains, and rashes.
The warning signs for severe dengue are severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, rapid breathing, bleeding gums, blood in the vomit, fatigue, and restlessness.
Meanwhile, Japanese encephalitis is caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), which can be transmitted through bites from mosquitoes called Culex tritaeniorhynchus that live in rural or agricultural areas such as rice-growing and pig-farming regions.
Most people who get infected experience mild or no symptoms. In people who develop severe disease, early symptoms include fever, headache and vomiting. These symptoms may be followed by disorientation, coma, and seizures. Seizures are more common in children.
As of June 3 this year, the province had 14 cases, with four deaths from Japanese encephalitis.
As of June 10, Iloilo had 571 dengue cases with one death — seven percent higher than the 535 cases with six deaths recorded in the same period last year.
Quiñon clarified that Japanese encephalitis cases in the province were mostly recorded in the first quarter of the year. So far, no new cases have been reported in the second quarter.
“Nagdamo gid sang first quarter of the year. After that, wala naman sang nagdugang pa nga Japanese encephalitis nga reported,” she said.
This is because Japanese encephalitis-carrying mosquitoes are endemic, Quiñon explained.
For her, prevention is the key to avoiding a possible surge of dengue and Japanese encephalitis cases in the province, especially with the start of the rainy season.
The first is through vaccination; its first dose is usually given to a six- to nine-month-old child, with a second dose after a year.
But the Department of Health does not have vaccines against Japanese encephalitis, and consequently, the Iloilo provincial government cannot provide them to the public.
There are private physicians in the city and province of Iloilo that have it, said Quiñon, but at a cost.
“That is why ang aton prevention should focus more on the 4S strategy,” Quiñon said.
The 4S strategy includes: search and destroy mosquito breeding sites; self-protection measures like wearing trousers and long-sleeved shirts and daily use of mosquito repellent; seek early treatment; and support fogging/spraying only in hotspot areas.
The IPHO head also encouraged the spraying of adulticides in households and surroundings, especially if there are piggeries and rice fields around, and there are too many mosquitoes./PN
