How a Bohol village saved its residents from dengue

With 58 dengue cases recorded in 2017, residents of Brgy. Salvador in the town of Cortes, Bohol decided they had enough. Prodded by the strong political will exercised by their barangay leaders, the barangay turned their situation into probably Bohol's most successful story yet in the anti-dengue drive - reporting zero dengue cases in 2019.

Considered by many as a scourge to communities especially in rural areas where breeding places are just about everywhere, dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that manifests in high fevers leading to hemorrhaging and death, was also a top concern for barangay officials led by Chairman Jessa Renegado-Bibat.

"Daghan ta og kaso sa dengue adtong 2017-2018, medyo naulaw gani ta nga gianhi na ta sa mga tinugyanan sa lungsod ug Probinsya, aron matabangan ta nila sa pagsumpo niini (We had many dengue cases in 2017 and 2018, and it was a bit embarrassing to have been visited by municipal and provincial health officials who promised to help us to stop this)," Bibat shared. 

After their brief orientation and information campaign, she gathered the Sanggunian and generated commitments which led to the creation of the Barangay Anti-Dengue Campaign Committee and the Barangay Anti-Dengue Task Force in September 2018.

"We figured out that our residents are not all well-off and hospitalization was out of the equation, so we had to do what we can on the prevention side," she added.

"With the ordinance, we pushed for educating constituents on the importance of community sanitation and other practical means of dengue prevention," Bibat said.

Then the council created the Aksyon Barangay Kontra Dengue Task Force in Salvador Cortes, a move patterned from the provincial ordinance. 

The task force, co-chaired by the Barangay Kagawad Chair on Health and Sanitation Nemesia Hubac, has all kagawads and Barangay Health Workers, Day Care Workers, private sector, and religious representatives intent on not just swatting the pesky problem but exterminating it just as well.

The task force's focus was to educate and urge residents to join the campaign, establish vector control and surveillance unit, coordinate with town dengue campaign committee, and specifically inspect and identify dengue high-risk puroks and designate a purok point person tasked to designate purok dengue brigade in their respective puroks.

The dengue brigades surveyed, drew maps of location and types of potential breeding sites. Out of these, the municipal health officer and dengue vector surveillance officer conducted baseline entomological survey in the high risk puroks accompanied by barangay officials.

The survey results form as the proof for the ensuing purok mobilization, which the ordinance also provides further action.

The dengue brigades roam around the purok and check on the compliance on secure water storage, emptied flower vases, properly stowed discarded tires, illegal sewage discharge that creates ponds potential for breeding mosquitoes, and other measures.

"We also encouraged households to actively participate in cleaning of surroundings and to put up a fixed date for massive clean up days and search and destroy operations," she added.

These formed the baseline where maintenance activities could easily stand.

"And then, we issued Executive order No. 14, series of 2018 which implemented the four o’clock Stop, Look and Listen habit as implemented by the Department of Health in its Anti-Dengue Campaigns," the chairman said.

She also acknowledged critical help from her team of barangay kagawads, health workers, day care center workers, and even barangay tanods in the mobilization.

The ordinance pegs a fine of P2,500 and imprisonment of not more than six months. "If we could put up penalties for not attending barangay assemblies, where the risk of life and limb is not as dire, this is dengue and the inaction of one could lead to the death of many," she commented. 

The barangay also put up a Cleanliness Covenant Signing in the Oplan Layas Kitikiti, Goodbye Dengue, and supplemented by community mobilizations and massive purok clean-ups through their Purok Dengue Brigades, Bibat continued.

Oplan Layas Kitikiti is a barangay-wide, three-day purok mobilization to ensure that potential breeding sites for mosquitoes are eliminated, anti-larval solution is poured into big bodies of stagnant water, and receptacles that collect water are overturned. 

The barangay also tasked the Purok Brigades to submit mobilization plans, including areas covered by the clean-up, one which the cluster of houses assigned would be bound to maintain all throughout the year. 

This plan every household leader commits to do during the covenant signing, Bibat proudly shared.

As to the succeeding weeks, the Barangay Task Force conduct home visitations and occasionally identifies potential areas for clean-up to discourage mosquitoes.

"Malipay pod ta nga nakita nato nga ang tanan, naghiusa gyud, naa pay nanglibre os snacks samtang ang uban nanglimpyo sa mga datag-datag, mga hugasan, wala nay balihay kon kinsang yuta ang gitrabaho, basta mapalayas ang lamok (We were happy to see that everyone united, there were some families who cooked snacks while clean up teams raided ponds, kitchen dumps without counting anymore who owns the lot, as long as we could drive the mosquitoes away)," she shared.

The following year, Brgy. Salvador recorded zero dengue cases, one it hopes to maintain all throughout.

"We thought starting it was the hardest part, now we realize it is maintaining it that is tough, with people tending to be complacent after a huge success," Bibat said. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)