By Charlie Lagasca
SANTIAGO CITY, Isabela -- Two boys, aged seven and 15, died of dengue here as Malacañang rejected proposals to declare a state of calamity nationwide.
Ten people have died from the virus in Cagayan Valley.
Santiago Mayor Amelita Navarro has declared a dengue outbreak in the city.
The declaration will allow the city government to allocate more funds to undertake measures to contain the disease caused by the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Reports said the city has reported at least 90 dengue cases this year. Other parts of Isabela have 116 monitored cases.
Cagayan Valley has already exceeded the 1,000 mark in dengue cases, with at least 10 deaths this year, according to reports.
Tuguegarao City, capital of Cagayan province has also declared a dengue outbreak.
Based on reports, Cagayan has the highest number of cases at 566; followed by Nueva Vizcaya at 479 cases, 261 of which were monitored last August.
Quirino province has 41 dengue cases, while no cases had been reported in Batanes.
Speaking over state-run dzRB radio, Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said the government sees no compelling need to declare a state of calamity based on reports it has been receiving.
“There is not enough basis yet to declare a national calamity,” he said.
“On a national level, there is still no unusual increase in the number of dengue cases. There is no new data on this.”
Coloma said the Department of Health is already addressing the rising dengue cases in Quezon City.
“For now, what is important is an intensified information campaign against the disease, which the administration of President Aquino is doing, spearheaded by the DOH under Secretary Enrique Ona and other concerned agencies, including local government units,” he said.
Coloma said the reported surge of dengue in Quezon City does not reflect on a national scale.
“Walang bagong lugar kaya hinihintay pa po nila ang datos na papasok dahil ayaw din po ng DOH na mag create ng panic (The DOH is still awaiting data from other places and does not want to create panic),” he said.
“Ginagawa po ang lahat lalawigan at iba pang rehiyon sa monitoring ng DOH. (All provinces and regions are complying with DOH monitoring).”
Ona said a downward trend of dengue cases has also been observed, starting this month.
Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 28 this year, the DOH recorded 69,594 cases, almost double the 34,997 cases during the same period in 2009.
The death toll from dengue has reached 501, compared to 369 last year.
Ona has directed the DOH to temporarily suspend the conduct of seminars to enable health workers to focus on the anti-dengue campaign.
The government, though its media networks nationwide, has launched an intensified campaign to contain the outbreak of dengue, which has reportedly reached its peak of more than 60,000 cases.
Last week, the DOH recorded a 98.9 percent increase in the number of dengue cases for the first eight months of this year compared with the same period in 2009.
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