The Quezon City health department has set up dengue express lanes in the city’s 61 health centers to provide immediate medical attention to suspected dengue cases, particularly those that occur in barangays placed under the alert threshold level.
To date, the city health department has placed under strict monitoring four barangays in District 2 that reported the most number of dengue cases during the first seven months of the year. These are barangays Bagbag, San Bartolome, Commonwealth and Batasan Hills.
According to city health officer Antonieta Inumerable, there were 173 dengue cases and two deaths reported in Barangay Bagbag from January 1 to August 4 while San Bartolome registered 168 cases and one death during the same period this year.
Barangay Commonwealth registered the third highest number of dengue cases with 146 cases and two deaths. However, Batasan Hills registered the most number of deaths with three and 146 dengue cases.
From January 1 to August 4 this year, the city health department reported about 3,161 dengue cases, which was 146.2 % higher than the 1,284 cases reported during the same period last year. To date, the disease has already claimed 25 lives, mostly from urban poor communities in District II.
Quezon City has intensified up its dengue prevention efforts by mobilizing city health workers to conduct house-to-house information and education campaign to contain the disease, particularly in urban poor communities.
Supervised space spraying is also being conducted in areas with reported dengue cases.
All city health services have been stretched to provide medical assistance to city residents who are suspected of contracting the deadly disease, which is transmitted by the daytime-active Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes.
Even super health centers, designed primarily as lying-in clinics, have also opened up its services to emergency cases, including dengue virus infections. The city health department assured that all health centers are provided with adequate supply of medicines, such as paracetamol and oral hydration solutions, to help address the needs of city residents, particularly those residing in depressed communities.
Earlier, Mayor Herbert Bautista renewed his call for city residents to do their share by cleaning their respective surroundings to eliminate possible breeding grounds of the dengue-carrying mosquitoes. Precy/ Ej/ Maureen Quiñones, PAISO
