Jovencio San Mateo, Valencia City dengue coordinator, announced on radio station DXDB that more than half of the 200 cases was traced to residents in the city’s poblacion barangay.

San Mateo told MindaNews last March that two persons of the then 67 cases of dengue in the city, died.

San Mateo said they have recommended for the declaration of a dengue outbreak in two villages where transmission has been considered high.

San Mateo identified the two villages as Purok 16, Gawad Kalinga, Bagonta-as and Purok 4 in Barangay Barobo. 

Villa Rezon, CHO sanitary inspector, said they consider dengue as a top priority. But she said they recognize that the cases were expected to increase this year following a three-year cycle observed by local dengue control officials.

San Mateo explained that they recommended the two villages because transmission there has been fast in last two weeks. In the case of poblacion barangay, he noted that the more than a hundred cases there have been “staggered” in occurrence.

He said the cases in downtown Valencia City appeared to be high because the population in the area is also high.

But he admitted it is already dengue season, although he added they have not anticipated dengue cases to rise this high at this time.

San Mateo announced their preventive and control campaign around the city. He said June is dengue awareness month.

San Mateo said people in the poblacion can easily run to the city’s hospitals for medication.

It is in the barangay, he said, that mortality rate is higher because they resort to traditional healing methods or self healing. 

But he said dengue statistics cannot be compared in the two areas.

Meanwhile, Marsman Dinamling, an aide at the Office of the Malaybalay City Malaria/Dengue Coordinator, said the city only has 10 confirmed cases of dengue from January to May 2009.

Romeo Sulit, provincial field operations officer of the Department of Health office in Bukidnon, told MindaNews earlier that over the last 10 years, Valencia City consistently has the most number of cases throughout the province.

He also cited an observation that the total number of cases of dengue infection rise in a three-year cycle due to the level of vigilance of the public.

Citing it as the second year, he said they had approximately 1,400 cases in 2007. It went down to 280, or 80 percent down, in 2008.

Sulit said they are indeed expecting an upsurge of cases in 2009 that’s why they have alarmed the public about it during their information, education, and communication campaigns.

He said the present number of cases is alarming. He cited that the surge in transmission is common towards the end of summer and will peak from June to July.

He has likewise called on the public to clean up and never to relax in the fight against dengue. (Walter I. Balane / MindaNews)

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