DoST to test mosquito traps in Tacloban

published December 23, 2010 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- The government has set aside P5 million to test mosquito traps in this city early next year.

Some 18,863 households in 33 "hotspot" villages will be covered by tests that would last six months to a year.

These tests serve as starting point for the nationwide implementation of a strengthened Dengue Prevention and Control Program.

Department of Science and Technology (DoST) regional director Edgardo M. Esperancilla said Tacloban was chosen as pilot area for the nationwide testing because of the high number of dengue cases here this year.

As of Oct. 22, a total of 1,775 dengue fever cases were documented in Tacloban. This was about a fifth, or 19%, of the 9,444 cases in Eastern Visayas during the first 10 months of the year, according to a report by the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit.

"We will start deploying traps in January next year. The budget of P3 million for this study was already approved by the DoST secretary," Mr. Esperancilla told BusinessWorld.

Department of Health (DoH) regional director Edgardo M. Gonzaga said in a separate interview that their office is allocating about P2 million to finance the tests and pave for the commercialization of this locally developed mosquito trap.

The city government of Tacloban will also put up counterpart fund for this project.

"We welcome this because this will strengthen our dengue prevention program. We can use this nationwide if this will be proven effective. This will run for six months to a year because we have to determine the advantage of this additional strategy," Mr. Gonzaga added.

Experts from the DoST and DoH central offices will be mobilized to facilitate the study, which further evaluates field-tested traps in Marikina City and Novaliches in Quezon City.

The activity specifically aims to compare baseline and monthly dengue fever incidence between experimental and control communities in the city.

The testing is divided into three project components -- public health applicability of Lethal Larvitraps; disease surveillance; and the knowledge, attitudes and practices survey. -- Sarwell Q. Meniano