Mayor Celso Lobregat yesterday declared a dengue fever outbreak in Zamboanga City, as dengue cases reached 1,755 with 20 fatalities from January to August 21.

This, as he appealed to residents to intensify search and destroy campaigns to eliminate dengue carrier mosquitoes.

Mayor Lobregat made the declaration in a press briefing at City Hall yesterday morning together with City Health Officer Rodel Agbulos and Dr. Dulce Amor Dagalea, chief of the CHO Epidemiologist Unit and Red Cross Administrator Vic Liozo Jr.

Lobregat and Agbulos presented the data before the media revealing a significant rise in the number of cases of dengue with the month of July having the highest number of victims of 460. And, as of August 21 this year, the trend has reached the “outbreak level” with 314 cases, exceeding overwhelmingly the historical data of 2009 despite massive public awareness campaign.

“We have conducted series of information drive and clean-up campaign to address this problem. The best way to neutralize dengue is to “search and destroy” the breeding place of these mosquitoes”, the mayor, as he encouraged everyone anew to sustain cleanliness drive to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.

He specifically called on barangays with higher number of reported cases to keep their surroundings clean and kill the larvae by pouring and sprinkling salts to areas with stagnant water like canals.

For his part, Dr. Agbulos noted that despite cleanup efforts initiated by the City Government, some barangays still remain complacent and non-participative. Last month the CHO spearheaded the creation of Barangay Dengue Control Teams to properly destroy the breeding ground of mosquito-carrying dengue in their own localities.

The 20 barangays with the most number of dengue cases are the densely populated barangays of Tumaga with 110, Tetuan 101, Sta. Maria 94, San Roque 93, Baliwasan 81, Guiwan 76, Putik75, San Jose Gusu 69, Pasonanca 68, Sta. Catalina 61, talon-Talon 59, Upper Calarian 58, Campo Islam 57, Canelar 51, Tugbungan 41, Ayala 38, Sta. Barbara 30, Culianan 28, Divisoria 25 and Sinunuc with 25.

According to Dr. Agbulos, to address the “outbreak” status of dengue, preventive and curative measures were set in place.

Expectedly, on August 26, 2010 different stakeholders to include the different medical societies and organizations and major hospitals in the city will meet to define their commitment s and action plans to remedy the situation as part of the curative measure. On August 31, 2010, a city-wide cleanup campaign shall be initiated with massive information and advocacy drive, “search and destroy” activity for the larvae mosquito and intercept approach to areas with stagnant water.

Mayor Lobregat said: “Once again we are appealing to everyone, especially the media to assist us in informing the public of their responsibility. We cannot go to everybody’s households and ask permission to clean his or her surroundings. Everybody must work to solve our problems with dengue. This outbreak must serve as double warning for all of us.”

Meanwhile, patients with apparent symptoms of the disease were also advised to immediately seek for proper medical guidance in any of the public or private hospital, to deviate from the deadly stage of the illness.