GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/29 June) – Another dengue patient died here early this week, bringing the confirmed fatalities due to the mosquito-borne disease to six in the last six months, the City Integrated Health Services Office (CIHSO) said Friday.
Dr. Jacinto Makilang, CIHSO’s Inter-Local Health Zone I head, said the latest fatality was a five-year-old girl from Barangay Dadiangas North here who succumbed to complications caused by the viral disease at the city district hospital early Tuesday.
He said the victim, who was identified as Angelica Honrado, was already suffering from advanced stage of dengue when she was brought to hospital for treatment last Monday.
The victim’s grandfather Felipe said Angelica initially suffered from fever and other flu-like symptoms late last week, forcing her to skip her classes at the Special Education or SPED Integrated School here last Friday.
On Sunday, he said Angelica’s condition worsened and she complained of severe stomach pains but she was only brought to the hospital on Monday and was diagnosed with Stage 4 dengue.
The Department of Health (DOH) noted that the disease’s Stage 4 is exhibited by dengue shock that usually leads to the patient’s death.
Makilang said they immediately conducted anti-dengue cleanup and awareness drive at the victim’s community in Purok Dagohoy in Barangay Dadiangas North and the SPED Integrated School compound in Barangay Dadiangas West to help contain the possible spread of the disease.
Citing the DOH’s directives, he said their campaign is presently focused on the first two points of the agency’s 4-S strategy against dengue.
4S stands for search and destroy, seek early consultation, self-protection measures and say no to indiscriminate fogging.
“But we’re now concentrating on the 2-S, meaning search and destroy as well as seek early consultation, to prevent disease complications and possible deaths,” Makilang said.
Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio supported such move and urged parents as well as community leaders to strictly adhere with the government’s prescribed anti-dengue measures.
“When a (dengue) patient is brought to a hospital at a later stage, the chances of survival is very low especially for very young children,” she cited.
CIHSO records showed that Angelica was the second dengue fatality for this month and the sixth since January within the city’s 26 barangays.
In early June, a two-year-old girl from Purok Greenville in Barangay Calumpang identified as Clarice Barile also died due to dengue complications.
The recorded dengue deaths from January to June this year were up by two when compared to last year’s figures, according to CIHSO and DOH records.
As of June 23, DOH Region 12’s epidemiology and surveillance unit reported that the confirmed dengue cases in the city has so far reached 177 or down by three percent compared to last year.
Overall, dengue cases in Region 12 or the Soccsksargen Region already reached 1,375 or up by only one percent from last year.
North Cotabato posted the most number of dengue cases in the region with 592 followed by South Cotabato with 229, Cotabato City with 214, Sarangani with 92 and Sultan Kudarat with 71.
Compared to last year, the confirmed dengue cases this year in Cotabato City and North Cotabato increased by 110 and 36 percent, respectively. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)