Officials Told to Step Down if they Can’t Help Fight Dengue

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama had challenged the barangay officials to step down from their posts if they cannot help in the fight against dengue in their respective territorial jurisdictions.

The mayor also called those city officials who are affiliated with the Bando Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan (BOPK) not to block his anti-dengue projects, which is aimed to lower the number of dengue-related casualties.

Rama joined the officials of the Department of Health (DOH) who gathered at Plaza Sugbo, fronting the Cebu City Hall where the nationwide information campaign against the deadly dengue virus was conducted.

The mayor threatened to penalize those who may not cooperate in the government programs against dengue.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona was in Cebu City over the weekend to encourage the Cebuanos to help the government in preventing the rise of dengue statistics where Cebu is among the provinces with the most number of dengue cases.

“Let us reduce the mosquito population para mawala ang virus nga nag-spread sa dengue,” he told the audience composed of barangay health workers, municipal and city health officers.

Ona said cleaning our surroundings and to destroy the breeding sites of mosquitoes by preventing the water to be stagnant are among the ways on how to reduce the dengue statistics.

The barangay officials can help by spreading the information on how to prevent dengue in their respective communities.

The statistics showed that from January 1, 2013 to June 8, 2013 Central Visayas has the most number of dengue cases in the entire country with 6,023 or 51 percent higher than the cases recorded for the same period in 2012.

Of the 6,023 dengue cases, the 831 are from Cebu City where two children had died. For the same period last year there were 962 cases, but there was only one casualty.

The City Health Department is closely coordinating with the Cebu City officials to enact an ordinance increasing the penalty for those
households who have dirty surroundings and those that have mosquito breeding sites and containers in their property.