“We will stop dengue incidence in the province now,” said Leyte Governor Jericho L. Petilla, during the launching of the Ovicidal and Larvicidal (OL) mosquito trap in Balyuan Convention Center, Tacloban Leyte on 19 February 2011.
The OL mosquito trap is a technology developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) designed to reduce the population of the dengue-carrying “Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus” mosquitoes by attracting and killing their eggs in a simple but proven effective system. This technology will be distributed nationwide in cooperation with the Department of Health (DOH).
“We are more than willing to put this trap in every household especially in those areas with high prevalence of dengue,” said Governor Petilla, as he cited that Leyte was one of the most affected provinces in the country.
The Governor also encouraged his fellow officials and local constituents to be involved and not to wait until they become victims of the disease. “We should be very careful, that people might think that this OL mosquito trap is the all-out solution, this is only a mitigation technique. It is very important to involve ourselves in this endeavor and be responsible to clean our surroundings to protect ourselves against dengue,” Governor Petilla concluded.
Meanwhile, Tacloban City Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez, thanked DOST and DOH for choosing Tacloban as the first recipient of this innovative technology. “The trap would be a big help to lower the incidence of dengue in our locality,” said Mayor Romualdez.
According to the DOH Region VIII, Eastern Visayas recorded more than 5,000 dengue cases and 65 deaths in the first six months of 2010. More than one fourth of the cases came from Tacloban with 1,194 cases. Eighty-five percent of the victims were children less than 12 years old.
“We don’t want to see anymore dead children because of this scary disease, we will do all to protect our children,” declared Mayor Romualdez.
He also stated that the local government of Tacloban will allocate funds to buy extra OL mosquito trap kit to distribute to all houses specially the identified high dengue risk areas.
DOST and DOH will distribute 2,800 kits to each of the 16 regions of the country. National Capital Region (NCR) will get a separate allocation of 5,200 OL mosquito trap kits.
Among the local officials who graced the ceremonial distribution of OL mosquito traps were Dr. Jose L. Bacusmo, President of Visayas State University (VSU), Ms. Erlinda Olivia P. Tiu, Regional Director of Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Dr. Edgardo Gonzaga, Regional Director of DOH-VIII, Engr. Edgardo Esperancilla, Regional Director of DOST –VIII and barangay officials. Edmon B. Agron, PCHRD
