LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The Provincial Health Office (PHO) has recorded 5,363 dengue cases from January 1 to December 31, 2020, a 46-percent decline from the 9,897 cases in the same period in 2019.
In an interview on Friday, PHO chief Dr. Anna Ma. Teresa De Guzman said mortality due to dengue in the province also decreased from 22 in 2019 to 15 in 2020.
She said among the towns that logged a high number of dengue cases in 2020 are Bugallon with 274, Umingan with 204, Asingan with 134, Dasol with 99, and Aguilar with 78 cases.
“The youngest cases last year was a six-month-old baby boy and the oldest was a 54-year-old male,” she added.
De Guzman attributed the drastic decrease in dengue cases to the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The lockdown enabled the public to clean their houses and surroundings, which effectively prevented dengue-carrying mosquitoes from harming them,” she said.
Meanwhile, the province has recorded an 80 percent decrease in leptospirosis cases from January 1 to December 31 last year with 41 cases as compared to the same period in 2019 with 204 cases.
The mortality rate due to leptospirosis has also gone down from 31 in 2019 to seven in 2020.
The towns of Mangaldan, Binmaley, Sta. Barbara, Mangatarem, Bani, Asingan, Mabini, San Nicolas, and Urdaneta City were under the watch list of PHO, de Guzman said. (PNA)
