Baguio City (CNN Philippines) — With the onset of the rainy season, the Department of Health-Cordillera regional office here encouraged the public to eliminate breeding of sites of dengue-carrying mosquitoes as three provinces and one city in the region saw increasing cases of dengue.
Dr. Amelita Pangilinan, regional director of DOH-CAR, reported an increase of dengue in the provinces of Abra, Apayao, and Mountain Province and in Baguio City.
Reports from the DOH-CAR Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit showed a 101-percent increase of dengue cases in Abra, 77-percent increase in Apayao, 90-percent increase in Mountain Province and 16-percent increase of cases in Baguio City from January to June 26 this year compared to the same period in 2014.
From 80 cases recorded last year the number of dengue patients in Abra province rose to 161 for the first six months of the year. In Apayao, from 47 cases recorded last year it increased to 83 cases this year and in Mountain Province, Debgue cases rose from 22 cases recorded last year to 42 cases this year.
In Baguio City, from 83 cases recorded last year it rose to 96 cases this year.
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Meantime, the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, and Kalinga had a decrease in dengue cases.
A lone fatality has been recorded in San Jose, Luna, Apayao last January due to dengue shock syndrome.
Pangilinan also reported clustering of cases in several barangays in Baguio City, Abra, Benguet and Mt. province.
DOH regional director, who stressed early detection and treatment of dengue cases are important in preventing deaths among the affected population, asked for vigilance from the public in removing breeding sites of aedes aegypti mosquitoes that harbor the disease.
She added that the public should not be complacent even if their respective provinces saw a decrease in the numbers of dengue cases since the overall regional data shows the number of cases only dipped by one percent from 722 cases last year to 713 cases this year.
She adds majority of those affected by dengue are males with a median age of 16 years old.
Meantime, the Baguio City Health Department said they are now conducting massive information drives to control breeding site of aedes mosquitoes.
