There’s more to the dengue story than we all originally thought. The month of August came and went, leaving four dengue deaths in Negros Oriental.
August was by far the deadliest month for dengue in Negros Oriental although health officials tell us that the 773 recorded dengue cases have not yet exceeded last year’s 852 cases recorded over the same period.
That’s supposed to be some consolation for Oriental Negrenses, considering that in the neighboring province of Negros Occidental, there have already been 24 deaths from 4,087 reported cases.
New discoveries are also being unearthed about the dengue-carrying mosquito. There used to be only two kinds of dengue mosquitos flying around us. The danger period to get bitten by mosquitos then was during early morning and early night. Now, we are told that there are five different strains of this virus and the mosquitos that carry this disease bite round the clock.
Now that’s the scary part.
But the good news is that there are proven ways of protecting yourself from these pesky mosquitos. and these solutions are mostly within our reach–insect repellants, changing our wardrobe to cover more skin, environmental management and sanitation.
We wouldn’t want to have another death happening in our midst. We just have to do what we have to do. Even the most basic home-based solution like cleaning our canals might just be able to save a life — yours, your neighbor’s, or your loved one’s.