DOH warns of dengue outbreak in Laguna dumpsite; 2 kids die

After sounding the alarm on the dengue outbreak that killed at least two children there, the Health Department on Wednesday appealed to residents in Laguna to sustain anti-dengue efforts. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also asked residents to learn their "lesson" from the deaths and keep their surroundings clean. "Cabuyao had no dengue cases before but the dengue cases occurred at a relocation site that became a virtual dumpsite," Duque said in an interview on dzRH radio. Two children from the Southville Compound resettlement site in Cabuyao died last wek, prompting the DOH to declare a dengue outbreak there even after the rainy season. The DOH's National Epidemiology Center (NEC) noted 10 dengue cases in Cabuyao this year, including three in Southville. DOH NEC chief Dr. Eric Tayag on Tuesday added that, "(These figures) do not include the other new deaths we just learned. From January 1 until October 28 this year, health officials noted 261 deaths all over the country due to dengue. Although 25,747 cases were reported during the same period, the figure is 16 percent lower than the number of incidents last year. The Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon sub-region, however, experienced the highest rate increase in dengue cases with a 71 percent hike. Breeding ground Meanwhile, Duque said there was no new strain of dengue in the initial investigation of the outbreak in Southville. He said that when the rains came due to typhoon Paeng last month, mosquitoes tended to breed in cans, bottles and other containers that may contain stagnant water. "It just happened that the place was turned into a virtual dumpsite, with cans and containers all around. When the rains came, mosquitoes bred there," he said. Tayag earlier asked regional and provincial authorities to begin defogging efforts at Southville to avert an even bigger outbreak. DOH personnel were scheduled to conduct house-to-house visits at the resettlement area to look for more dengue cases, search for mosquito breeding sites and inspect the drainage system.-GMANews.TV