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[av_heading heading=’GUV: NO DENGUE CALAMITY YET ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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ILOILO – There is no “cogent reason” yet for the provincial government to place Iloilo under a state of calamity due to dengue. At least for now, according to Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr.
As of Sept. 10, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) recorded 6,808 cumulative cases of dengue with 15 deaths.
However, according to Provincial Administrator Raul Banias, majority of the cases already recovered. He placed the number of dengue patients still being treated at around 200.
“Wala kinahanglan mag-panic,” said Defensor yesterday.
Although 12 district hospitals currently have a high occupancy rate, only “10 to 15 percent” of cases in them were dengue, Banias clarified.
Most of the cases were respiratory tract infection, pneumonia and intestinal diseases, he said.
Two towns have so far declared a state of calamity due to dengue outbreak – Estancia and Santa Barbara.
If another town will declare a state of calamity due to dengue, Banias said, the provincial government will check the morbidity week report to see if there is basis to declare a calamity.
“Pero so far, naga-down na ang incidence compared to the last three weeks nga gasaka,” said Banias.
Under the National Disaster Coordinating Council’s Memorandum Order No. 4-1998 for the declaration of a state of calamity, if two or more towns declare outbreaks, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council can do the same for the whole province.
To declare a disease epidemic or outbreak in a city or municipality, province or region, the following must be met:
* there is an unusual – more than what’s previously expected – number of cases of a disease in a given area or among specific groups of people over a particular period of time (to determine whether the number is more than the expected, it should be compared with the number of cases during the past weeks or months or a comparable period in few years or at least five years; and
* there is clustering of cases.
Just last week, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) said barangays with clustering cases of dengue may declare a state of calamity. Its data showed 231 barangays with clustering of cases, or three or more cases within four consecutive weeks.
The province has 1,721 barangays.
Declaring a state of calamity would allow these barangays to use their calamity funds to purchase needed materials against dengue mosquitoes such as larvicides and adulticides, said Dr. Ma. Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon of PHO.
But Quiñon believed dengue already peaked on the 31st morbidity week (July 31 to Aug. 6) with 865 new cases recorded. The weeks after this, the number of new dengue cases reported dropped – 705 in the 32nd morbidity week and 625 in the 32rd morbidity, and so on, said Quiñon.
As to the high occupancy rate in the 12 provincial government-run hospitals, Defensor said the capitol already deployed an additional 584 workforce in them. These included doctors, nurses, nursing attendants, utility workers, medical technologists, pharmacists, and social workers.
The situation will improve soon, according to the governor, once the hospital upgrades are completed.
Defensor has been encouraging the poor to seek medical help in provincial government-run hospitals. These facilities are for them, he said.
Early this week, the 25-bed district hospital in Calinog town confirmed it was accommodating more than six times its capacity.
Staffers at the Dr. Ricardo Provido Sr. Memorial District Hospital were left with no choice but to place the patients — some of whom are suffering from pneumonia and dengue — at the hallway and covered footwalk.
The hospital currently has 81 patients with pneumonia, 27 with dengue, and 62 with urinary tract infection, hypertension or diarrhea, among others.
Last month, the Jesus M. Colmenares District Hospital in Balasan town also appealed for help. The 25-bed hospital also overflowed with patients.
With 174 total admissions, its occupancy rate was 704 percent way over its capacity, said Banias.
According to Banias, the congestion strained everything – manpower, facilities, budget, medicines and hospital supplies, and even patience.
The provincial government then appealed to all to look kindly to the hospital personnel and staff who were doing their best to serve patients./PN
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