CHO reminds barangays of ‘4 o’clock habit’

The Iloilo City Health Office (CHO), as part of its dengue control campaign, has begun distributing larvicides to barangays and public schools in order to prevent dengue.
“Larvicides are one of the most effective ways to prevent mosquitoes from breeding,” explained CHO assistant department head, Dr. Mae Delmo. “This is a kind of insecticide specifically used to kill mosquito larvae.”
Larvicides target insects in their larval life stage, which stops them from developing and controls the local mosquito population.
“Prevention is everyone’s responsibility,” said Iloilo City Mayor Jose Espinosa III. “We need to help each other to keep our environment free from the danger of mosquitoes.”
Between January and June, the CHO recorded 114 dengue cases in the city, up from the 97 reported during the same period last year.
In addition, the Department of Health-Region VI (DOH-6) last month confirmed there have been 19 deaths related to dengue fever in the Western Visayas this year.
Based on DOH-6 records, around 2,700 dengue cases were reported in the region, with Negros Occidental reporting at least 1,284 cases and Bacolod City reporting 256.
Meanwhile, the CHO also reminded barangays of the “4 o’clock habit,” which encourages local communities to clean their surroundings at 4:00 p.m.
“We have noticed that there were some who stopped cleaning their surroundings if there were no dengue cases in their barangays,” noted CHO head, Dr. Bernard Caspe. “The clean-up initiative should be done every day to ensure that there are no breeding places of mosquitoes.”
The city earlier passed a resolution mandating all barangays to conduct cleanings every Saturday./WDJ