IMUS, Cavite - The Cavite Provincial Health Office (PHO) has launched an all-out campaign against the dreaded dengue after the disease has claimed the lives of a 60-year-old school teacher and three children in Dasmariñas City, the province's most populated area.
PHO Sanitary Inspector Annabelle R. Dilig reported that the number of dengue cases in Cavite has increased every month since January this year and that the four deaths in Dasmariñas were recorded only last July.
Doctor Maria Vilma V. Diez, head of PPO, Dr. Nelson Soriano, provincial epidemiologist, and other health officers have moved to check the areas in the province where the dengue cases are reported and act on those afflicted by the mosquito-carrying virus.
Cavite is a dengue-prone province considering its big population and nearness to sea waters.. Officials in the province's four cities and 19 towns have also moved to fight dengue which have afflicted thousands of people in the country, particularly in Mindanao.
In Dasmariñas, Mayor Jennifer A. Barzaga and her husband, city lone district Representative Elpidio F. Barzaga, and health officiers Drs. Cynthia M. Cristobal and Minerva Casenas, have led the city massive cleanup, information dissemination, fumigation and other actions against dengue in the area.
The action was made to prevent a dengue outbreak in Dasmariñas just like in 1998. Records showed that there were eight dengue fatalities in Dasmariñas alone and 28 in the whole of Cavite in 1998.
The July fatalities were identified as Maria Nenita Navarette, 60, a teacher, of Dasmariñas' Barangay San Miguel II, Saira Fernando, 13, New Era, Sampaloc V, Cristine Pablo, 7, of Mabuhay, Paliparan III, and Marylle Luchavez, 4, of Paliparan 1.
Sanitary Inspector Mario Mondragon said that Navarette succumbed to dengue shock cendrum at Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) Hospital last July 25. Fernando died after suffering hemorrhagic fever at Asia Medic Family Hospital and Medical Center, University of Sto, Tomas Hospital and St. Paul Hospital, respectively during the July 28-31 period. With the development, health officials called on the residents to be wary of the dengue disease.
