CAGAYAN de Oro City Hall’s sustained barangay level dengue awareness campaign is paying off as cases went down to 21 as of mid-September this year, the City Health Office said today.
“Compared to last year, the number of dengue cases went up considerably for the June to August period. Last June we logged 218 cases, then 236 cases in July, and 132 cases in August compared to 42 in June, 67 in July, and 62 in August, all of last year. Thankfully due to our aggressive barangay level information campaign and proactive community, our cases went down to 31,” said CHO epidemiologist Dr. Teodulfo Joselito Retuya Jr.
The drop in cases came days after the CHO reported that the city logged 692 cases from January to July this year or more than double the 327 dengue cases logged in the same period last year.
Based on CHO data, the city’s dengue incidence follows a pattern in which cases go up every two to three years, Dr. Retuya said.
“July remains the highest so far in a number of dengue cases though the city logged 111 cases last March and 118 cases last April,” Dr. Retuya said.
City Hall’s launching of its ‘Big Bang’ dengue awareness sticker campaign led by Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy last August was augmented by the efforts of the barangay dengue brigades at the community level, Dr. Retuya said.
“The ‘Big Bang’ dengue awareness campaign is paying off but we’re still asking our barangays to come up with more ways to reduce our cases further,” he said.
Unlike Covid-19 which already has more than one vaccine, Dr. Retuya said a vaccine had yet to be given to dengue patients.
“Dengue claimed more lives (in the country) than Covid-19 because there’s no vaccine that can be distributed to the public,” Dr. Retuya said.
The national government banned the dengue vaccine Dengvaxia after its French manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur said the vaccine posed health risks to those who had yet to contract the disease.
Dr. Retuya said the city’s dengue cases peaked on the 28th week of this year or sometime in July and then later dropped in the following weeks.
Dengue morbidity or prevalence of dengue in a given period is divided into 52 weeks or equivalent to one year.
Despite the city reaching the 200 case mark twice this year, Dr. Retuya said it had yet to breach the 200 cases per week threshold that would elevate it to epidemic status. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)