ILOILO CITY — All 43 towns in the province of Iloilo, including one component city, have seen a significant rise in dengue cases compared to the previous year.The Iloilo Provincial Health Office (IPHO) said as of July 6, the province recorded a total of 2,053 cases, a 130-percent increase from the 893 cases recorded in the same period last year.In the first week of July alone, there were 348 cases reported in the province.The IPHO also reported five dengue-related fatalities in the towns of Badiangan, Miagao and Lambunao.IPHO head Maria Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon said 31 out of the province's 43 towns currently have active dengue transmission cases.Among these, 79 villages have recorded clustering of cases or have documented three or more cases within a four-week period.In the first week of July, the IPHO logged 40 new villages that have clustering of cases.Colmenares-Quiñon said that while the province has not yet reached the epidemic or alert thresholds for dengue, some towns have already exceeded warning levels.An alert threshold serves as an early warning for an epidemic while reaching an epidemic threshold demands an urgent response.Specific villages under close observation include Barangay Agdahon in Passi City, which has reported 15 cases in four weeks, and the villages of Inilagan in Badiangan and Tabucan in Barotac Nuevo, each with 10 active cases.The IPHO said these villages are at risk of being classified as hot spot areas, characterized by a clustering of cases with an increasing trend or the presence of dengue-related deaths.Passi City leads with the highest number of cases at 137, followed by Lambunao with 130, and both Badiangan and Calinog with 97 each. Oton has reported 88 cases.'The majority of those affected are under 20 years old. Our cases are mostly probable, which means that besides presenting symptoms, they have also been confirmed through laboratory tests,' Colmenares-Quiñon said.The IPHO already removed the dengue hot spot classification for Barangay Odiongan in Badiangan but said the importance of vigilance, including the practice of the 4S strategy to combat dengue.The 4S against dengue stands for search and destroy mosquito breeding sites; self-protection; seek early consultation; and support fogging or spraying indoors and outdoors.
