43 cases in Banate town

LGU, PHO partner to arrest continued transmission

A local outbreak in Barangay San Salvador in Banate, Iloilo was declared following the rising number of dengue cases despite the measures adopted by the Municipal Health Office, confirmed Provincial Health Officer Dr. Maria Socorro Colmenares-Quinon.

In an interview yesterday, Quinon confirmed there is indeed an outbreak of dengue in the village, noting the increasing number of cases to date which already reached 43, including those attended in Rural Health Unit and admitted in Barotac Viejo District Hospital from December 2012 to Jan. 8, 2013.

She said a go-signal was given to declare a local outbreak to facilitate the faster release of calamity fund that will aid the local government units involved in providing the logistics to arrest the transmission and prevent more casualties.

To date, she said a five-year-old kid from Banate already died from dengue while being treated in a hospital in Iloilo City.

Quinon said that upon learning of the outbreak, the PHO immediately coordinated with the MHO to facilitate distribution of medicines and aid in the search and destroy of the breeding places of the dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

“We found out na may additional pang 27 cases, kag on-going ang transmission, pero naghambal si Dr. Banias nga wala sila ga-untat sa search and destroy sa breeding places; tapos nagpulong sila with (Banate) Mayor Cabarobias,” Quinon said.

However, despite the measures, she stressed that the transmission continues and attributed it to the dense population of the village.

“Despite that, waay gihapon ganubu ang cases, kay gali ang area, very congested, the biggest barangay in Banate. It has an area of 64 hectares, with the population of 6,000 persons with only 600 households,” she explained.

“So, it means 10 (persons) per household ... very congested,” she observed.

She added she advised the municipal health officer to “say yes to fogging” given the clustering of cases or “hot spot” as well as the fact the health officials already exhausted all means to respond to the incident.

Last Monday, the barangay evacuated it residents and conducted village-wide fogging using backpack sprayer because the province and the town have no fogging machines.

From January 1 to Dec.  31, 2012, the PHO recorded a total of 63 cases of dengue in Banate.

In Iloilo, there are 4,481 cases of dengue with 33 deaths from January 1 to December 2012.

Relatively lower than the 6,005 cases of dengue with 32 deaths in 2010, she concluded.*