Dengue cases rise some more
THE provincial health team of the Department of Health in the province has listed a total of 645 suspected dengue patients, four of whom have died as of August 12 this year.
The number was culled from the number of patients admitted to government and private hospitals and some rural health units in the province since January this year.
The first report said nine patients have already died of dengue although the DOH listed only four fatalities: one resident each from Rosales, Basista, Sison and San Nicolas.
Because of the noted discrepancy, Dr. Gloria Balboa, deputy regional director of the DOH said her office is verifying the specific and immediate causes of death of the nine patients.
“The fatalities are being investigated in order to ascertain lapses in detection and management and guide health authorities to prevent more deaths,” said Balboa.
The report showed that 52 per cent of the patients were males, ages ranged from one month to 73 years old. Dagupan City has still the most number of reported dengue cases at 104 or 16 per cent of the total cases.
This was followed by Alaminos City with 11.9 per cent cases while San Carlos has 9.5 per cent.
The Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) has computed the alert and epidemic thresholds (ETH) in 2005 from its surveillance of dengue cases in the past five years.
If the number of cases is more than the alert thresholds (ATH), it indicates that the occurrence of the disease is increasing and an outbreak may ensue.
Balboa has urged continued vigilance in instituting control and preventive measures to avoid transmission of the disease to other people.
The reported biggest number of dengue cases was in July with 322 cases, while an epidemic threshold was computed at 471 cases.
From August 1-12 this year, 90 patients were clinically diagnosed or were suspected cases of dengue. The ETH for August is at 611 cases.
Balboa said the numbers clearly show that the incidence of dengue in Pangasinan has not reached the level where a declaration of an outbreak is warranted.
Balboa advised the public to practice environmental hygiene and use available means protection for protection such as mosquito nets and repellants. – AQL
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