Dengue cases in Negros Oriental have reached an alarming level with 296 cases and two deaths recorded for the first semester of this year, said Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Felix Sy of Negros Oriental Health Office.
The two persons who died of dengue hemorrhagic fever came from the municipalities of Sibulan and Bacong.
Most of the the dengue victims are aged 21 and above, and both female and male almost equally represented.
Sy said the January to June 2012 record is 21.62 percent higher compared to the same period of last year with 232 cases and zero death.
For this year, majority of the cases are from Dumaguete City with 162; followed by Bayawan City with 36 cases; Tanjay City, 17; Guihulngan nine; and seven cases each from Dauin and Sibulan.
The municipalities of Sta. Catalina and Bacong have six dengue cases each; and five each from Bais City and Pamplona.
The health officials once again called for public cooperation in every household to have regular cleanup activities to eliminate, if not lessen, the spread of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Provincial Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit also encouraged the barangays and schools to organize dengue brigades for surveillance and inform local health units on dengue cases.
The dengue virus is transmitted from one person to another by an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, which thrives in clean and stagnant water. (RMN/JCT-PIA 7)
