DAVAO CITY — Thirty-four (34) persons who are internally displaced persons due to the October 2019 earthquakes have been hit with dengue at the Evacuation Center in Luna Sur, Makilala, North Cotabato.
Luna Norte evacuation center is the temporary home for 171 ‘Bakwits’ from Barangay Bato, their village was declared a risk risk area after the October 20, 2019 landslides and the series quakes during the year.
The Luna Sur evacuation center is located along the municipal road but houses were built under the rubber plantation.
Based on the report of Barangay Nutrition Scholar Norma Bayan as published in dxND, mostly hit were children while 14 refused hospital confinement and opted to stay at their temporary shelter at the evacuation camp.
Of the 41 IPDs who were checked by government doctors, 33 were diagnosed to have dengue, after they showed symptoms like fever, rashes and vomiting.
Because of the condition, the municipal health office intensified the clean-up drive and fogging was also conducted by the Rural Health Unit (RHU) says Vice Mayor Ryan Tabanay.
“We already conducted fogging and we asked everyone to help in the clean-up drive specially the cleaning of cups in the rubber trees because we suspect that the cup used to collect the rubber latex could have served as breeding area for moquitoes,” Tabanay added.
The rubber tappers did not extract the latex for several weeks and the cup could have accumulated water from the rainfall, where the mosquitoes breed.
As of Friday, the province of North Cotabato recorded 470 dengue with Kidapawan City has the highest cases, followed by the towns of Matalam and Libungan.-Editha Z. Caduaya/Newsline
