Even as the number of dengue cases has dropped in the province of Cotabato, the provincial government continues to intensify its drive against the mosquito-related disease having purchased four additional units of fogging machines, and continued the conduct of trainings on fogging machine operation, intensive information-dissemination campaigns and the enhanced 4S Strategy or the Search and Destroy, Seek Early Consultation, Self Protect Measures and Say Yes to Fogging only during Outbreaks.
The province has reached the “epidemic threshold” this year when its cases recorded a 220% increase compared to last year’s reported cases in the months of January to early September.
In the last weeks of September and entering the month of October, cases have been declining and the province now is only on the “alert” status where each town/city recording only 2 or 3 dengue cases.
During the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (PDRRM) Meeting held at the Capitol Rooftop on October 2, 2019, Provincial Health Officer II, Dra. Eva Rabaya reported that the Integrated Provincial Health Office has successively conducted 4 o’clock habit or fogging activities in seven LGUs namely Makilala, Alamada, Tulunan, Pikit, Kabacan, Pigcawayan and Kidapawan City and that IPHO will also be facilitating the Dengue Summit on October 7 to 8 to be held in Kidapawan City.
Rabaya added that aside from dengue, the provincial government has also been eyeing a massive immunization on polio in November and was conducting strict monitoring against the said paralysis-causing disease after one of its neighboring provinces, Lanao del Sur, confirmed to have one new case while a river in Davao City tested positive of the same infectious disease making the province’s exposure to polio to be at a “high risk” level.
Meanwhile, Acting Governor Emmylou “Lala” Taliño-Mendoza called on the local PNP and BFP personnel to also help the provincial government in its fight against another top health scare today, the African Swine Fever.
Mendoza, speaking in front of the members and visitors of the PDDRM Meeting yesterday, stressed that movements in all entry points in the province must be monitored, and BFP personnel should also help in this undertaking.
“We have everything in place, in fact we are the only province with an existing Quarantine Ordinance and we have collaborated with the LGU officials of the entry points namely Makilala, Arakan, Tulunan, Carmen and Pigcawayan for quarantine facilities. But we cannot do it alone here in the province, we need your help in making our communities safe, healthy and course and polio and ASF-free, the Mendoza reiterated.
The Acting Governor, along with DILG Provincial Director Ali Abdullah and Provincial Planning and Development Officer Cynthia Ortega, will be spearheading activities related to the implementation in the province of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s EO 70 or the Whole-Of-Nation approach to End Local Communist and Armed Conflict (ELCAC) beginning October. \\ozg//
