Home 
Dengue should be given more attention since its fatality rate is higher than Influenza A (H1N1) virus, according to the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7).
Still, Dr. Susana Madarieta, DOH-7 director, said there were fewer deaths due to dengue from Jan. 1 to May 30 this year compared to the same period last year. Even the number of cases dropped, she added.
?The fatality rate of dengue (for the first five months) is 1.3 percent. This is lower than the same period last year, which is 2.8 percent,? she said.
Still, she added the fatality rate for dengue was higher than H1N1 cases, which is less than one percent.
Dengue virus is transmitted by a species of mosquito, the aedes aegypti, a day-biting mosquito that lays eggs in clear and stagnant water. The disease manifests as a sudden onset of severe headache, muscle and joint pains.
Health officials advise the public to maintain environmental sanitation by covering water drums and pails and to replace water in flower vases regularly.
The H1N1 virus is a ?mix? of human, swine and avian flu virus and is transmitted through airborne droplet transmission. The disease is manifested in patients with a history of travel and exhibiting flu-like symptoms such as fever, sore throat, cough and colds.
A total of 1,174 dengue cases were admitted at different sentinel hospitals in Central Visayas with 15 recorded deaths from Jan. 1 to May 30 this year. Last year, the health agency recorded 1,954 cases with 55 deaths.
Majority of the cases are in Cebu with 299 cases with eight deaths, lower compared to the 563 cases and 24 deaths reported over the same period last year.
The number was 46.89 percent lower compared to the same period last year, said Raymond Ogan, Cebu City Coordinator on Dengue Control of the City Epidemiology Statistics and Surveillance Unit.
?This is already lower compared to the same period last year,? he said.
A conscious effort to avoid dengue should be done since dengue is here to stay, said Dr. Expedito Medalla, DOH-7 Health and Emergency Management coordinator.
?H1N1 and other avian flu cases will not last that long, unlike dengue, which is here to stay as long as there are uncovered containers with water. Basta naay lamok, naa ang dengue (Where there are mosquitos, there is dengue,? he added.
Of eight deaths from Jan 1 to May 23, two died in barangay Labangon and one each in barangays Kamputhaw, Lorega, Guadalupe, Zapatera, Binaliw and Sudlon II.
Kamputhaw had the highest number of cases of dengue at 26, followed by Labangon at 19 and Lorega, 15. Guadalupe had 14 reported cases while Tisa and Carreta had 13 cases each.
Ten cases each were reported in Talamban and Calamba.
Barangays Bulacao and Pahina Central, San Nicolas remain dengue-free.
Despite the drop in the figures, Mayor Tomas Osmeña was not satisfied with the campaign against the mosquito-borne disease.
He said that even with free consultation and medication offered by the city government in the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), eight people still died of dengue.
?I?m not satisfied. There are too many casualties. They did not know they got dengue, which means our information program is not enough. Even if it is 50 percent less, there is no excuse for that. There are still people who die,? Osmeña said.
The mayor was also irked that the city?s free medication was also running out.
?They don?t tell me if it is running out they just tell me if it is consumed. I don?t know how many availed. We lost so many people because we run out of money. We can?t run a city like this. That is why I hate Civil Service because we cannot kick out incompetent people,? he said.
