Learning curve

Uriel C. Quilinguing .

FINALLY, there’s a clear prescription for persons suspected to have dengue fever—stay hydrated.

For decades, the state health agency has a canned response—the 4S which means search and destroy mosquitoes, self-protection, seek early medical consultations and support fogging and misting. In less than a month, the Four S became Five S.

As in the past, the Four S would be launched whenever the number of cases would reach the alert level, and within the epidemic threshold. So public health professionals, with local government leaders just did that, except self-protection and to stay hydrated which are obviously personal. 

So when there were indications the number of dengue cases has started to drop, based on epidemiologists’ surveillance weekly morbidity reports, the conclusion was that it was due to the anti-dengue campaign.

Records at the City Health Office, particularly at the diseases surveillance unit, would show there had been dengue cases every single week and every month since January, this year, and the cumulative figures could change any single moment.

Number of cases of dengue would gradually climb and would exhibit a plateau for several weeks, only to go up on the onset of rains in May. This continues to gain momentum and would reach its peak sometime in July and August. Dengue cases would then exhibit a downtrend.

Medical doctor Joselito “Joey” Retuya, who is also wearing the hat as city health office’s epidemiologist and has been tracking dengue all year round for almost 30 years now, has computer-generated graphs to show the same trend all these years.

So far, there is a decreasing trend for dengue cases in Cagayan de Oro and all over Northern Mindanao region, but there is no indication whatsoever that the dengue crisis is over. 

Admittedly, many were clueless how to effectively address the headaches as this mosquito-borne disease reached epidemic proportions. It’s a pity many do not know what they do not know. There are those who were “naively confident,” who think they know, yet still they do not know what they do not know.

After eight months, while dengue fever has generated adequate media mileage, many may have become “discouragingly realistic” of the disease and, in the process, they already know what they don’t know at the start. This state of mind could drag for sometime; a situation most citizens are, including those who lack the rudiments of information, education and communications during crisis situations.  

Even entomologists cannot claim mastery of knowledge on mosquitoes since they focus only on two of the 279 species and subspecies of mosquitoes, their lifecycle may differ and recently altered by climate change, notwithstanding their distribution, physiology, behavior, ecology and population.

Retuya, who is an epidemiologist, admitted his entomological limitations, since his specialization is in analyzing what causes the disease outbreaks in order to treat existing diseases and prevent future epidemics. 

As long as there are mosquitoes, particularly the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus species, dengue fever is here to stay, lurking for hapless victims who are unmindful of the virus these insects transmit.         

Due to dengue, many were unconsciously absorbed in a learning curve, a cyclical process that empowers those who have the humility of admitting their ignorance.

(Uriel C. Quilinguing is a veteran print, radio and television journalist. He is a former president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club and former editor in chief of this paper. For several years, he was president of the Media Health Advocates Group of Northern Mindanao. For reactions, send them to uriel_quilinguing@yahoo.com)