Several barangays continued with the denguerra last Thursday despite the scare of aftershocks following the July 27 earthquake.
According to City Health Services Office Sanitary Inspection Division head Charles Carame, the intensive search and destroy is household and barangay-based, citing efforts to lessen dengue cases and without assistance from other groups.
Most agencies keen on search and destroy efforts opted to stay put after the intensity 7.0 earthquake.
During the management committee meeting on July 26, CHSO head Rowena Galpo reported 64 barangays have clustered dengue cases from 53 a week ago.
As of July 25, there are 25 new cases; and 1,257 cases with two deaths compared with 641 during the same period last year. Last year, however, there were six deaths.
Galpo said there is a downtrend of dengue cases since there were 184 cases on week 26 which ended on July 2; on week 27 – 174 cases; week 28 – 157 cases; and week 29 – 117 cases.
A decrease in cases after more than a month of denguerra and intensive search and destruction of mosquito breeding sites signifies effectiveness of the activity.
The General Services Office has also collected 2,420 used tires that serve as a breeding site of mosquitoes from 43 barangays.
The decrease in the number of dengue cases and mosquito breeding sites is attributed to good local leadership; supervised, monitored and regular barangay-based clean-ups; and involvement of the barangay officials including Tupad beneficiaries in intensive search and destroy and Oplan Taob. Barangays with good practices in reducing or not having dengue cases will be commended during the City Hall’s regular flag raising ceremonies. – Julie G. Fianza
