31 August 2005
OPINION: We may not be seeing the worst of dengue yet
AFTER ALL
By Behn Fer. Hortaleza Jr.
THOSE afflicted in Pangasinan are only in the hundreds, with just three recorded deaths as of August 15 tally, so our local healthmen tell us, by way of assuring the public that the situation is still manageable. Worried relatives are bringing in their sick to the hospitals and clinics, but blessedly most of the victims are recovering. Meanwhile, the fogging and larvicidal tests by government health teams continue in most parts where the culprit, the day-biting aedes aegypti mosquito, may be in hiding.
With so many reports on dengue fever, a scourge of the century in Asian countries, filling newspapers and airlanes the past couple of months, you’d think there should have been some automatic, voluntary public mobilization by now to clean surroundings of stagnant water and live, as Gov. Victor Agbayani loves to mouth it, the neighborhood “4 o’clock habit.”
But we see none or little of that effort at backyard cleanup in many places. People just seem to be busy with so many other things except cleaning canals or tidying up the areas of stagnant water.
It’s painful to say this but it’s true: People of Pangasinan are taking the dengue threat lightly, compared to say that time when SARS “came” to Pangasinan (oddly, it was just the poor woman overseas worker from a fifth district town who fell from the fatal disease and yet everyone here went helter-skelter, grabbing the nearest surgical mask and swallowing whole capsules of vitamin C and antibiotics) a few years back.
That dengue seems to have become a seasonal affliction, coming during the wet months, and disappearing like magic by October or thereabouts seems to have given most local folk a false sense of security , especially if they or their nearest relatives have remained free of the disease by September’s end.
This mindset, of course, is dangerous.
As Health Secretary and kabaleyan Francisco “Pincoy” Duque stressed in a media interview, the seasonal run of the disease (July-September) could yet be drastically upturned or changed as had happened in Thailand where at one point dengue went nearly the full route of the year, downing so many and killing several in its deadly run. In other words, and against our better wishes and hopes, we might not be seeing the worst of this mosquito-carried virus yet.
Sure, everybody loves to hear reports of a decrease in the percentage of cases over that of the previous reckoning period (soothes the frayed nerves, doesn’t it?) anytime. But graphs and statistics, like presidential popularity surveys, can change overnight, and drastically too.
For now, what we should do is to clean, clean and clean some more those darn dirty yards and premises, even the house interiors. And, to pitch for Dagupan Vice Mayor Alvin’s current crusade: Bleed for Dengue. Donate blood if you’re strong and healthy enough. The platelets they separate from it (to transfuse the blood of dengue victims with) could one day save your life – or that of your loved ones.
By Behn Fer. Hortaleza Jr.
THOSE afflicted in Pangasinan are only in the hundreds, with just three recorded deaths as of August 15 tally, so our local healthmen tell us, by way of assuring the public that the situation is still manageable. Worried relatives are bringing in their sick to the hospitals and clinics, but blessedly most of the victims are recovering. Meanwhile, the fogging and larvicidal tests by government health teams continue in most parts where the culprit, the day-biting aedes aegypti mosquito, may be in hiding.
With so many reports on dengue fever, a scourge of the century in Asian countries, filling newspapers and airlanes the past couple of months, you’d think there should have been some automatic, voluntary public mobilization by now to clean surroundings of stagnant water and live, as Gov. Victor Agbayani loves to mouth it, the neighborhood “4 o’clock habit.”
But we see none or little of that effort at backyard cleanup in many places. People just seem to be busy with so many other things except cleaning canals or tidying up the areas of stagnant water.
It’s painful to say this but it’s true: People of Pangasinan are taking the dengue threat lightly, compared to say that time when SARS “came” to Pangasinan (oddly, it was just the poor woman overseas worker from a fifth district town who fell from the fatal disease and yet everyone here went helter-skelter, grabbing the nearest surgical mask and swallowing whole capsules of vitamin C and antibiotics) a few years back.
That dengue seems to have become a seasonal affliction, coming during the wet months, and disappearing like magic by October or thereabouts seems to have given most local folk a false sense of security , especially if they or their nearest relatives have remained free of the disease by September’s end.
This mindset, of course, is dangerous.
As Health Secretary and kabaleyan Francisco “Pincoy” Duque stressed in a media interview, the seasonal run of the disease (July-September) could yet be drastically upturned or changed as had happened in Thailand where at one point dengue went nearly the full route of the year, downing so many and killing several in its deadly run. In other words, and against our better wishes and hopes, we might not be seeing the worst of this mosquito-carried virus yet.
Sure, everybody loves to hear reports of a decrease in the percentage of cases over that of the previous reckoning period (soothes the frayed nerves, doesn’t it?) anytime. But graphs and statistics, like presidential popularity surveys, can change overnight, and drastically too.
For now, what we should do is to clean, clean and clean some more those darn dirty yards and premises, even the house interiors. And, to pitch for Dagupan Vice Mayor Alvin’s current crusade: Bleed for Dengue. Donate blood if you’re strong and healthy enough. The platelets they separate from it (to transfuse the blood of dengue victims with) could one day save your life – or that of your loved ones.
