Capiceños unite to curb dengue

By: Jemin B. Guillermo

ROXAS CITY, Capiz – Capiceños are doing all efforts to curb dengue cases in the area.

Part of the initiatives to fight dengue are the issuance by the local government units (LGUs) here of localized Executive Order mobilizing the community for cleanup drives and organizing monitoring teams and municipal and barangay task forces.

In a report during the recent Provincial Dengue Crisis Management Committee meeting, the Provincial Health Office noted that 10 LGUs in the province – Roxas  City, Cuartero, Dao, Dumalag, Jamindan, Maayon, Pilar, Pontevedra,  President Roxas  and Sigma – issued EOs for the conduct of clean-up drive in all the barangays.

Likewise, 12 LGUs – Cuartero, Dumalag, Dumarao, Jamindan, Maayon, Panay, Panitan, Pilar, Pontevedra, President Roxas and Roxas City – also organized their monitoring teams to ensure that all activities relative to the dengue outbreak are being reported.

Aside from the LGUs, the Capiz PHO has also created its own monitoring team.

The Capiz and Roxas City Schools Divisions have likewise issued a memorandum for the creation of its respective School Dengue Task Force.

The report also highlighted the initiatives of the LGUs in implementing Cash for Work and Food for Work programs for the clean-up drive, particularly in the municipality of Cuartero and Dao, respectively.

Other stakeholders to include the church, Philippine Red Cross, government and private hospitals, civic and non-government organizations have likewise joined forces to address the dengue crisis.

Included in these activities are the continued conduct of bloodletting activities for adequate supply of needed blood, church announcements and prayers during masses to avert the dengue outbreak and conduct of symposia in schools and barangays, among others.

Meanwhile, the municipalities of Pontevedra, President Roxas and Sigma have already placed their town under the state of calamity due to the significant rise in dengue cases.

Earlier, Governor Esteban Evan B. Contreras has issued an Executive Order declaring a dengue outbreak status in Capiz and directing the conduct of simultaneous clean-up drive provincewide every 4 o’clock in the afternoon starting July 13 and every Saturday thereafter for eight weeks.

Record from the PHO showed that as of Morbidity Week 30 covering the period from January 1 to July 27, 2019, there are already 4,209 dengue cases in Capiz with 18 deaths already.

The figure is 988 percent higher than the 387 recorded dengue cases during the same period last year. (PIA)