A 10-year-old boy from Barangay 3, Bacolod City was the first reported victim of rabies this year in Bacolod, records from the City Health Office showed.

Alvin Moises Jadocana of Bat-us Calamba, Brgy. 3 died on May 2 after being bitten by a stray dog that entered their compound, CHO rabies coordinator Gloria Parreño said yesterday.

Parreño said the boy's grandmother took him to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital where she was issued a receipt to bring the victim to the CHO for anti rabies shots. However, the grandmother failed to bring the boy there, she said.

Parreño said the victim's family is not sure whether he was bitten in February or March this year. He was later brought for consultation to the Riverside Medical Center when he experienced difficulty in swallowing and later to the CLMMRH where he was diagnosed to have tonsillopharyngitis and pneumonia because he had also developed fever that went on and off, she said.

Parreño said the grandmother of the child only informed the hospital that he was bitten by a stray dog when he was already dying. Meanwhile, CHO Health and Sanitation head Dr. Salome Biñas yesterday said they have not received any reported dengue-related death recently, when asked to confirm reports that a resident of Brgy. Villamonte had died of dengue this month.

Biñas said they have not received any death certificate from any hospital concerning the matter.

She said there are 255 reported cases of dengue in Bacolod as of the second week of June and that the CHO is encouraging the public to observe the 4 o'clock habit of cleaning their surroundings to get rid of mosquitoes.

City Health Officer Dr. Edgardo Estrella said his office continues to conduct information and education drives against dengue in the barangays and schools. He said this will become a yearlong activity.

Estrella said there were some schools that had requested them to conduct fogging operations before classes started. He said they are also persuading the barangay captains to create anti-dengue barangay brigades down to the purok level to conduct clean-up drives in their areas in order to get rid of possible breeding places of mosquitoes.*CGS

back to top