DOH exec, Cebu inmates' anti-dengue dance debuts on YouTube

The world-famous Cebu Dancing Inmates are now helping the Department of Health create awareness about government efforts to fight the spread of dengue.

 

National Epidemiology Center head Dr. Enrique Tayag led the Cebu dancing inmates in a dance video that was uploaded to YouTube Monday.

 

Tayag and the inmates danced to several tunes, including PSY's "Gentleman." A children's song encouraging people to keep their surroundings clean and dry to prevent dengue-carrying mosquitoes from breeding marked the intervals between the songs they danced to.

 

During the dance, the message "Walang lamok, walang dengue (No mosquitoes, no dengue)" was flashed on the screen.

 

The video, which runs four minutes and 11 seconds, features Tayag in a blue-and-green jacket, at the center of the dance.


 

 

A caption indicated the video also sought to mark the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Dengue Day 2013.

 

Online viewers lauded the initiative, with one saying that what the Cebu inmates are doing "is truly highly commendable."

 

Last weekend, the DOH recorded at least 42,207 dengue cases, 193 of them fatal, from January to the first week of June this year.

 

The DOH's National Epidemiology Center said this was a one-percent decline, or 456 fewer cases, compared to the same period in 2012.

 

“Dengue needs urgent action and we need it now. In the absence of the usual cures and vaccines, we have to rely on the basics of early prevention and community action,” DOH Secretary Enrique Ona said on the department's Facebook page Friday.

 

Citing its data, the DOH said most dengue cases from Jan. 1 to June 8 were recorded in:

 

- Central Visayas (6,023 cases, 51-percent increase)

- Calabarzon (4,742, 17-percent decrease)

- Davao Region (4,364, 30-percent increase)

- Western Visayas (4,444, 102-percent increase)

- SOCCKSARGEN (3,963, 126-percent increase).

 

Metro Manila had 3,073 cases or 6,208 fewer cases - a 67-percent decrease, with Quezon City having 617 cases or a 77-percent decrease; Manila with 542 cases or a 65-percent decrease; Caloocan with 345 cases or a 67-percent decrease; Parañaque with 188 cases or a 67-percent decrease; and Valenzuela with 186 cases or a 62-percent decrease.

 

Yet Ona warned residents in areas that had fewer cases not to be complacent since dengue cases may peak in August and September.

 

The DOH also noted areas at high risk include urban centers where there is poor environmental management of household waste.

 

Also, the DOH called for a serious community-based, local government unit-initiated dengue control program starting in households.

 

Such a program reaches out to schools and other mosquito-dense areas in the community.

 

According to the DOH, dengue-carrying mosquitoes breed in artificial containers as well as old tires, puddles and empty coconut shells.

 

“The battle against dengue can be won right in our own backyards but this will not be easy for each one of us,” Ona said.  — ELR, GMA News