By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Bacolod City Sangguniang Panlungsod recently passed a resolution urging Mayor Evelio Leonardia to push the Bacolod City Health Office (CHO), City Environment Natural Resources Office, and City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to take action against the spread of dengue fever.
The resolution, penned by City Councilor Simplicia Distrito, cited CHO data that showed, between January 1 and June 22, the city recorded 477 dengue cases, which constitutes a 65.1 percent increase from the 289 reported during the same period last year.
“We are in the rainy season as of the moment, thus, prevention and mitigation programs should be done as soon as possible considering that the abundance of rain results in a high population of mosquitoes, particularly the ones carrying the dengue virus,” the resolution noted.
Through the policy, the city is requested to conduct information and education campaigns in the barangays, declogging and fogging operations, among other programs.
Meanwhile, CHO Environment and Sanitation Division head, Dr. Grace Tan, the current situation does not warrant the declaration of an outbreak but the community should be made aware as to prevent the number of cases from further rising.
“We encourage the barangays to initiate the clean-up drive because they are the ones [that] benefited [from] it,” she added./DGB, WDJ