Batangas gaining in the dengue battle

Gaining now on the fight against dengue, but Batangas
Provincial Governor Vilma Santos-Recto says it's not over yet.

Batangas City—With only three reported deaths due to dengue compared to last year’s eleven, Batangas is now gaining on the fight against the deadly disease. But the province's health office is not resting.

According to Dr. Mercedita Salud, Medical Specialist IV of the Batangas Provincial Health Office, they are always on the look-out and on double alert when it comes to dengue.

“We’re just on the start of the rainy season, and most of the dengue cases happen from January to September. And it increases during the rainy season,” Salud said.

So far, Salud said there is no dengue outbreak in Batangas, though the incidence of the disease is spread province-wide.

“We are getting more and more vigilant about this, and insist on the people to practice cleanliness.  Dengue mosquitoes tend to lay eggs on temporary places where rainwater is stored,” Salud added.

Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto said her administration is not resting on the campaign for the 4 o’clock habit to fight dengue.

“Cleanliness is the key and we never stopped campaigning for the 4 o’clock habit,” the governor said.

The 4 o’clock habit is best practiced using the “stop, look, and listen” approach where people are asked to stop everything at 4 p.m., look for breeding sites of dengue-carrying mosquitoes and destroy them.

Listen entails heeding instructions from local authorities for synchronous implementation of the 4 o’clock habit.

“Our dengue report may be so low now compared to last year’s result,” Gov. Vi said,” But that doesn’t mean we should stop what we’re doing.  This only pushes us to do more. That’s because we see a possibility of totally eradicating dengue in Batangas.” (Mei Magsino/SLI/Photo from Batangas Provincial Information Office)