EBU CITY - The Department of Health (DoH) 7, through the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (RESU) Thursday conducted house-to-house inspection in various areas here to check for places and areas that can be used as breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitos. RESU 7 head Renan Cimafrance led a team of epidemiologists in inspecting at least 100 houses in Felina Village, barangay Tisa, this city, and found water containers that might be used by dengue mosquitoes as veritable breeding grounds. Cimafranca said he was surprised that there are still household owners not fully aware that areas where dengue mosquitoes might breed include empty tires, cups, water containers, and even unused pairs of shoes. He, however, clarified Thursday that his office still has no reason to recommend to the DoH 7 director that a dengue outbreak be declared. As of press time Thursday, he said, "no area in the region has reached a point where we can say an outbreak exists." Continued Cimafranca, "We are continually monitoring the dengue hotspots in the region and if we would declare an outbreak, it would be particularly on a barangay level and not a general declaration." As this developed, the DoH 7 has started to conduct orientations on the use of treated nets at schools in Barangays Guadalupe and Labangon, two of the six barangays that belong to the so-called epidemic threshold in Cebu City. These treated nets, which look like ordinary screens, are said to have chemical mosquito repellants that can kill within contact. One roll costs P7,000 and is effective for five years.
According to the 37th Morbidity Week dengue update of RESU 7, a total of 7,241 cases were identified, examined and updated at different RESU7 disease reporting units from January 1 - September 18, 2010. There were 52 deaths which is 46.4 percent higher compared to the same period last year. Most of these cases involve the six-10 years age group and majority of cases were in Cebu City (26 percent) followed by Tagbilaran City (6.2 percent), Lapu-Lapu City (4 percent) and Toledo City (3.1 percent). Susanna Madarieta, DOH-7 Regional Director, is asking the public to clean all possible mosquito breeding places including flower vases, dish drains, old tires, roof gutters, and even bougainvillea, banana and other plants where pools of water may accumulate.
