Dengue cases in Iloilo surge by 513%

By John Noel E. Herrera

Iloilo province has logged 1,936 dengue cases with 16 fatalities from Jan to Aug 13, 2022, a 513 percent increase compared to 316 with one death in the same period last year.

By age, children 1 to 10 years old accounted for the most number of cases with 768, followed by aged 11 to 20 years old (639), and 21 to 30 years old (267).

Data from Iloilo Provincial Health Office (IPHO) also indicated that Oton town leads the list with 207 cases, followed by San Joaquin (175), and Guimbal (137 cases and three deaths).

The town of Oton also has the most number of barangays with clustering of cases at 10.

These villages are Poblacion East (11 cases), Buray (eight cases), Santa Clara (seven cases), Alegre (six cases), Cagbang (five cases), Trapiche (five cases), Abilay Norte (five cases), Poblacion North (five cases), Botong (4), and Caboloan Norte (three cases).

But Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. somehow did not see the situation as alarming due to the declining trend in total cases in the past two weeks.

“Every day we monitor our dengue cases in our hospitals. Our trend is we are not increasing (cases) nga makasiling kita nga ang aton sitwasyon mas malain sang nagliligad, which means that the measures we are implementing are appropriate response to the problems,” Defensor said in a press conference on Thursday.

(Every day we monitor our dengue cases in our hospitals. Our trend is that the cases are not increasing so we can tell that the situation is different compared to the past, which means that the measures we are implementing are an appropriate response to the problems.)

Defensor added that “we are monitoring our status here in the province and we are doing well in responding to it, so it must show that we don’t really have too many adjustments, because I think our preemptive measures are doing well.”

The governor further said that the number of patients in the hospitals is low compared to the figures during the previous years.

Data from Iloilo Provincial Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (PESU) indicated that out of 776 patients in hospitals, only 44 are admitted because of dengue.

Meanwhile, Defensor also lauded the efforts of different local government units (LGUs) in their efforts to fight dengue.

“I think our proactive measures are working. Thanks to the municipalities and barangays for continuously doing the 4 o’clock habit and cleaning the surroundings. Our barangays are very conscious right now and they continue to clean up even without clean-up drive projects and I think that is why our hospitals are not overwhelmed with dengue patients,” Defensor said.