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[av_heading heading=’Iloilo City not yet Zika-free – DOH’ 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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Thursday, January 5, 2017
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ILOILO City – It may take some time before the Department of Health (DOH) declares this city free from the Zika virus.
“Iloilo City was supposed to be declared Zika-free first week of December 2016 but two new cases were detected last week of November last year,” explained Dr. Glen Alonsabe, regional epidemiologist of DOH-6.
An area may be declared Zika-free if it has no cases for 40 consecutive days.
Alonsabe said the two cases were all adults from the districts of La Paz and Jaro and they have recovered already.
Their infections were managed at home; they were not hospitalized.
Prior to these two cases, the last confirmed Zika infection in Iloilo City was recorded first week of November last year.
DOH data showed a total of 13 Zika cases in Iloilo City so far; Iloilo province had one.
Last year, the first Zika case in the country was from Barangay Benedicto, Jaro. She was a 45-year-old married woman – the sixth laboratory-confirmed case in the Philippines since 2012 and the first case of local transmission. Two members of her household also tested positive for the virus.
Like dengue, the Zika virus is spread by Aedes mosquitoes that breed in clear, stagnant water.
Symptoms of Zika infection include skin rashes, fever, redness of the eyes, and joint pains.
Zika is prompting worldwide concern because of its connection to a neurological birth disorder – microcephaly – and its rapid spread across the globe.
Alonsabe said DOH-6 sends specimens from suspected Zika cases to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Metro Manila for analysis and confirmation.
Monitoring and mosquito control drive is done all year round, he added.
“For as long as there are mosquitoes, the threat remains. We will fight Zika the same way we fight dengue and chikungunya,” said Alonsabe./PN
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