ABOUT 17 of 757 dengue cases recorded from January to August 22 this year in Cebu City resulted in deaths, with an eight-year-old kid in barangay Camputhaw being the latest fatality.

According to the Cebu City Health Department, the numbers represent a 17 percent drop for the same period last year.

However, city officials considered it still alarming since anti-dengue programs were instituted to reduce the incidence of dengue in the barangays.

Among these measures are the free laboratory tests and hospitalization in the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) for dengue patients and suspected dengue cases.

Opposition figures like congressional aspirant and businessman Jonathan Guardo will launch anti-dengue programs like Guard Against Dengue Spread (GUARDS), an information campaign on dengue in barangay Tisa this Saturday.

?We have to help each other against this menace. Dengue is the enemy. It's a private sector initiative. I know Mayor Osmena is very concerned on dengue and I'd like to help him, in my own little way to fight its spread, Guardo said.

He said the parents of the dengue victims in the said barangay have joined together and help him in his dengue campaign program.

We will do a lot of information campaign because I think many of these deaths is due to ignorance..I think that the city's campaign still has its shortcomings. So much needs to be done, Guardo explained.

While Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama said they appreciated Guardo's help, his statement that the city government neglected its constituents is misleading and politically colored. /Reporter Marian Z. Codilla

Even though much of the services of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) have been relegated to barangay health centers, the city-run hospital is still seeing a rise in admittances, mostly dengue patients.

Dr. Myrna Go, CCMC head, said the hospital admitted 92 dengue patients last July, more than double the number in the same period last year, with the trend continuing as of the first two weeks of August.

Go said that the situation had come to the point wherein the beds in the pediatrics ward on the third floor had to accommodate three patients.

And even if a bed became free, hospital administrators would rather not spread the patients out, especially those in critical condition, so that it would be easier for the hospital?s few doctors to check on the patients.

We only have three doctors doing the rounds beyond office hours, Go said. Besides, dengue is not contagious, so they can't contaminate each other.

She said only patients who have the same condition are made to share beds in the hospital ward if necessary.

The rise in patients at the CCMC could be attributed to the weather, since more people get sick on rainy days, Go said.

We have no choice (but to admit them), unless they choose to transfer on their own. But they stay here because they don?t have to pay and needed blood is just donated. That's why some would just content themselves with sitting down, just as long as they're admitted, she said.

CEBU City has the most number of dengue cases in the Central Visayas, according to the health department.

The latest Department of Health in Central Visayas' Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (Resu) dengue update showed a sharp rise in dengue cases with 2,436 cases and 24 deaths recorded from January 1 to Aug. 8.

Cebu City registered 382 cases and nine deaths in this count.

The number of dengue cases recorded is seven percent higher compared to the same period last year when there were only 2,275 cases and 70 deaths.

Next to Cebu City is Lapu-Lapu City with 286 cases and five deaths followed by Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental is third with 268 cases and no deaths.

In the meantime, Cebu City Medical Center doctors denied accusations that they did not conduct blood transfusion to a four-year-old boy who later died of dengue.

Dr. James Lee Maratas who treated the boy from barangay Guadalupe said a doctor set the blood donor for a blood transfusion on Aug. 12. The boy died dawn that day.

The boy had undergone three blood transfusions with blood from the CCMC.

Dr. Myrna Go, CCMC chief of hospital said they had all the records in the hospital and they can identify which doctors are in charge of each patient.

She asked Irene Dakay, the mother of another four year old girl from barangay Camputhaw, another dengue fatality who claimed they were not treated well, to go to her office so that she could identify the persons involved and take appropriate actions if necessary.

The other doctors would have wanted to explain their side but they were attending an important meeting yesterday afternoon. /Editorial Assistant Ma. Bernadette A. Parco and Reporter Marian Z. Codilla

DENGUE has claimed another life in Cebu City, that of a journalist couple's five-year-old daughter.

Mary Heart Vallena, sixth child of Sun.Star Superbalita news editor Roger Vallena and GMA-7 Balitang Bisdak supervising producer Chelo Vallena, died in a private hospital at 1:58 a.m. yesterday. We lost a star in the family. (It's) so hard to imagine life without her. She was papa's girl, Roger said in a text message. He said Mary Heart was brought to the Chong Hua Hospital on Saturday afternoon.By Sunday evening, she was already suffering from 3rd grade hemorrhagic fever.

The little girl was the third in the family to get infected with dengue since last month. Her 14-year-old brother was the first to fall ill.It started Aug. 26, a day before my birthday, said Roger. Then a 10-year-old child was diagnosed with dengue. Mary Heart was the last to fall ill. The Vallena couple have eight children.

Dr. Durinda Macasocol, an epidemiologist with the City Health Department, said Mary Heart was the 25th to die of dengue since January in Cebu City.The number is still lower than the 39 fatalities for the same period last year. From January to August this year, 895 dengue cases were recorded in Cebu City compared with last year's 919 cases for the same period.

The wake for Mary Heart is being held at the Cebu Rolling Hills Memorial Chapel. Her burial is scheduled for Sunday at a cemetery in barangay Talamban, Cebu City.