Pangasinan records first dengue death

LINGAYEN: The province of Pangasinan has recorded its first dengue casualty for 2024, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) reported on Thursday, January 25.

Dr. Anna Maria Teresa de Guzman, PHO chief, said an 11-year-old girl from Binmaley town died of the disease on January 9 while being treated in a hospital in Dagupan City.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease that is transmitted by female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, according to the Department of Health website.

De Guzman also said that from January 1 to 22 this year, Pangasinan has recorded 72 dengue cases which is 13 percent lower than the 83 cases recorded in the province in the same period last year.

Most of the cases this year are children ages 1 to 14 years old.

Four towns are now in the PHO watch list. These are Lingayen (12 cases), Binmaley (7 cases), San Carlos City (6 cases), and Labrador (4 cases).

De Guzman called on parents to immediately bring their children to the nearest hospital or health center to seek medical assistance when experiencing symptoms of dengue such as high fever, headache and loss of appetite.

“Please don’t self medicate. If your child has a fever, take him or her to a health center so that he or she can be immediately assessed,” de Guzman said.

She said that the 14 provincial government-run hospitals have dengue fast lanes to immediately attend to cases with dengue symptoms.

Last year, the PHO Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit recorded 3,308 dengue cases. 12 percent higher than the 2,956 cases recorded in 2022.

Most of the cases were recorded during the rainy months from August to October.

Twenty-one deaths were recorded in 2023, higher than the nine cases recorded in 2022.

”Those who died were already in the late stages of dengue and were referred to the hospitals late,” said de Guzman.

De Guzman, meanwhile, called on parents and school officials to maintain a clean surroundings to destroy the mosquitoes’ breeding grounds.

“There should be no water receptacles where water is collected. Water containers should be covered,” de Guzman said.

She said that dengue fever, which used to be a rainy season disease, has become a year-round problem because of climate change.

“Dengue is now aligned with climate change. It has become a yearround disease because it now rains during the dry season, creating pools of stagnant water where dengue mosquitoes lay eggs,” de Guzman said.