Lingayen – At the onset of the rainy season, the Provincial Health Office (PHO), here advises the public to take extra precautionary efforts from water-borne diseases, particularly dengue.

 

Thus said by Provincial Health Officer Anna Maria Teresa de Guzman in the wake of reports that there is a 30 percent increase of dengue cases in Pangasinan from January to May this year compared with the same period last year.

 

“The provincial government is ready to assist municipalities and city LGUs in their dengue eradication programs,” said Dr. De Guzman who advised the public to clean and clear the house surroundings especially the gutters of roofings, containers with accumulated waters and drainage canals where mosquitoes usually breed.

 

Dengue control mechanisms launched by PHO include massive health information drive which focuses in barangays and market areas as well as health promotion in various schools.

 

All hospitals owned and managed by the provincial government have also been directed to offer quick-response mechanism in attending to dengue patients, owing to the improved facilities and services offered by government physicians and hospital staff.

 

“We have to prepare for the prevalence of other cases this rainy season as the breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitoes abound,” she added.

 

Meanwhile, series of blood-letting activity has been conducted by PHO in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross and Region 1 Medical Center to secure available blood supply in case dengue patients need to undergo blood transfusion due to the decrease of their blood platelets.

 

Dengue is acquired when a person is bitten by a dengue-carrying mosquito called aedes aegypti.

 

Towns with high prevalence of dengue cases include: Asingan, Bayambang, San Manuel, Pozorrubio, Lingayen, Calasiao, San Carlos City and Malasiqui.