Health office warns Baguio folks against lifestyle illness

By Carlito C. Dar

BAGUIO CITY -- The City Health Services Office warned local folks here to maintain healthy lifestyles as upper respiratory tract infections and heart diseases remain  top cause of sickness and death respectively  in this summer capital.

City Health Officer Dr. Florence Reyes told a recent barangay health summit that from 2007 to 2011, the average cases of URTI recorded in Baguio  stood at around 3,522.

Asthma and pneumonia, far second and third causes of morbidity, recorded  annual average cases of 1,100 and 1,002, respectively.

Reyes added heart disease, a lifestyle-related illness stopped  their record   for mortality or cause of death at an annual average of 100 cases.

Vascular diseases, pneumonia, cancer and  diabetes followed  with an annual average cases of 63, 49, 47 and 17, respectively.

City HSO chief epidemiologist, Dr. Donnabel Tubera, in an interview,  equated URTI and lifestyle-related illnesses such as heart diseases to rapid and unplanned urbanization.

She said with the bigger population or with more people, communicable diseases can easily be transmitted in this highly urbanized city.

She reiterated  the health department’s advocacy for all sectors to work in ensuring better health for the people of Baguio, especially in advocacy against communicable but preventable diseases and promotion of healthy lifestyle.

Meantime, Reyes who gave an overview of the health situation in Baguio during the summit, urged local officials and health workers in the city's 128 barangays to establish their respective health plans for next year.

Baguio City with a total area of around 57 sq. km was originally designed for 25,000 people, but has now a population of more than 300,000 people and records the highest population density in Cordillera with over 5,500 persons per square kilometer.