CHO raises alert on ‘wild’ diseases

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ILOILO CITY — The City Health Office is on alert against the reemergence of four “wild” diseases during the rainy season, two of which are considered potentially fatal.

City health officer Dr. Urminico Baronda said the four wild diseases are waterborne, influenza, leptospirosis and dengue with the last two as possibly fatal and with most victims as children.

Baronda said cases of dengue are noted to be decreasing from 1,206 cases for the period January to July 2013 to some 400 cases in January to July 2014. Peak period of the disease is from June to September.

An eight-year-old child residing at Tanza, city proper was reported as the first dengue fatality in the city.

Baronda said environmental cleanliness is a must in every barangay through destruction and taking out of breeding places of mosquitoes. Dengue virus is carried out by bites of aedes aegypti and aedes albupictus mosquitoes.

On the other hand, parents are advised not to allow their children to play in stagnant water to avoid the leptospirosis spawned by wastes and urine of infected rats and other rodents.

Baronda said the city health office had resorted to clustering of barangays for easy monitoring and immediate implementation of interventions in a move to stem the spread of the diseases. First to be clustered are barangays Sto. Nino Norte, Sto. Nino Sur, Calumpang and South San Jose.