Maintain a clean environment to avoid diseases – Aguilar

Las Pinas Mayor Vergel A. Aguilar called on city residents to maintain clean and orderly environment to prevent the incidence of water-borne diseases, especially during this rainy season.

The appeal was made as the mayor ordered the City Health Department and the city’s Sanitation Office for a continuing massive clean-up drive, particularly on areas that could be possible breeding ground for disease-carrying virus.

With the onset of the rainy days, several teams from the city engineering and health departments were mobilized to conduct clearing operations and de-clogging of waterways and canals not only to prevent flooding but more to ensure that no rodent or dengue-carrying mosquito would breed on it.

These continuing activities are being carried out even as the head of the technical section, city health office, has reported to the mayor that there has been a decrease of at least 10% of the reported dengue-afflicted cases as compared to the same period of last year which is from January to June.

Aguilar underscores the importance of prevention in all of their courses of action saying, “Nothing can beat a clean and tidy environment in ensuring the health of everyone in the community, so keep your healthy practices to save life and be a part of our progress.”

He said there is no point to be complacent in their campaign to prevent the water-borne and other diseases, especially so that new species of dengue-carrying mosquito also inflict victims at night time. Given special concern are the children and the elderly residents since they are prone to contamination having a weaker immune system.

At least two areas in the city’s 20 barangays, earlier tagged as dengue hotspots, have been declared safe after preventive measures were put in place and being continuously monitored. These areas were classified as hotspots being over populated and with reported high incidents of dengue cases but with no deaths.

Among the preventive measures were the conduct of a series of trainings for public and private school science teachers, particularly the installation and monitoring of larvae trap for dengue-carrying mosquitoes to secure and destroy all breeding sites; as well as the creation of dengue brigade involving students in grades 4 & five levels. Representatives from homeowners’ association, and barangay officials and volunteers were also trained to help in the disease prevention activities.  (END)