Dengue cases in Caraga on the rise

By Erwin M. Mascariñas
Correspondent .

Butuan City — The Department of Health-Caraga is closely monitoring the dengue cases as data indicate a 57.45 percent increase this year compared to the reported cases in 2017.

The October 2018 Disease Surveillance Report of DOH-Caraga showes that a total of 3,330 number of cases were monitored at the different disease reporting units throughout the region from Jan. 1 to Sept. 29.

This pointed out to about 57.45 percent increase in the number of cases to the same time period in 2017, with only 2,115 dengue cases.

The report also revealed that the spike in the number of reported cases increased significantly in three provinces in Caraga with Surigao del Sur province having 912 cases from 481 in 2017. The province of Agusan del Sur has 641 cases from last year’s 354 and then Surigao del Norte province has about 396 reported cases from 300 of 2017.

Butuan City also showed an increase in dengue cases from just 288 last year to 325 cases this year.

The report also showed that the mortality rate has also increased to about 14 deaths compared to 2017 of the same period of 11 deaths throughout the region.

Dr. Glee Valenzona, medical officer 3 and Infectious Diseases Cluster head of DOH-Caraga explained that the increase is part of a three-year trend.

“Last week we had the national program implementation review of our dengue program, and we saw that there has been an increase in the cases all over the Philippines which includes Caraga. But data show from the previous years that there has been a trend indicating that every three to five years, there would be a peak in the cases of dengue,” said Valenzona.

Aside from cleaning of waterways and areas with stagnant water, fogging, health officials in the region have added growth inhibitors in areas with stagnant water.

DOH-Caraga has urged local governments to further monitor the reported dengue infectious cases in their areas.