SPECIAL REPORT: Efforts to fight dengue in Tagum City come up short
TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte (MindaNews / 30 March) — Mosquitoes have been leaving an itch—literally and figuratively—to Tagumenyos for more than a year now.
Tagum has yet to consistently contain the mosquito-borne dengue since November 27, 2023, when the city declared a state of emergency due to rising cases and deaths.
The World Health Organization describes dengue as a viral infection transmitted through mosquito bites, usually from aedes mosquito.
Statistics shows that the City Health Office (CHO) of Tagum recorded 1,278 cases and 12 deaths from January 1 to December 27, 2023. In 2024, 2,302 cases and 11 deaths were already recorded from January 1 to November 30. That’s an increase by 80.1 percent, with still a month before 2024 ended.
Tagum City (population: 296,202 as of 2020 census), has the second largest number of dengue cases in the Davao Region, at 2,302 cases. Davao City, the most populous city in Mindanao (1,776,949 in 2020) recorded 7,165 recorded cases in 2024.
But the rise in the number of dengue cases is apparently not limited to Tagum City.
“Several provinces and cities declared a state of calamity because of the significantly increased number of dengue cases this year as compared to previous years,” said Dr. Ma. Delta Aguilar, a pediatrician practicing in Davao City with subspecialization on infectious diseases, during a forum on dengue in Davao City on February 23.
She said the “increased cases are consequences of … climate change, which leads to increasing temperature, high rainfall, and … humidity.”
In an email sent to MindaNews, the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) of Tagum said most of these dengue cases—totalling 1,260—were children aged 0 to 10 years old.
Although declared as a public health emergency in late 2023, residents here have been vulnerable to dengue for quite a long time now. Mosquitoes are still rampant in many areas. Containers—such as unused and discarded empty bottles, unattended pails, and similar objects—are filled with stagnant water, a favorite breeding ground for dengue-carrying mosquitoes. Non-flowing canals are a common sight.
More than a year after the declaration of state of emergency, Tagumenyos would say there is still a lot to be done.
Dengue Situation
More than 50 kilometers away from Metro Davao is the city of Tagum, the capital of Davao del Norte. Arriving in Tagum, one will be welcomed by a long stretch of neatly planted palm trees on both sides of the highway. Minutes later is the Magugpo Poblacion area, the innovative and modernized part of the city, with its tall buildings and a series of shopping centers, Mindanao’s longest flyover that stretches over a kilometer, and residential zones that appear to be well-planned.
Adjacent to the poblacion is the 1,520-hectare Barangay Visayan Village, which according to the CHO has 368 recorded dengue cases as of this writing.
Arriving at the barangay, MindaNews noticed stagnant, non-flowing canals and empty lots, while many residential houses have potted plants. Mosquitoes would be too happy to live and breed in these spots, among the risk factors of dengue, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It also mentioned that the people or the community’s “population’s knowledge, attitude and practice towards dengue” can also affect dengue risks, as “the exposure is closely related to behaviours such as water storage, plant keeping, and self-protection against mosquito bites.”
With the help of the barangay health center staff, MindaNews visited the home of a dengue fatality, a two-year-old who resided in Purok Basakan in Barangay Visayan Village. The youngest of five siblings, “Reyna” was the 10th casualty of the dengue outbreak in the city in 2024.
Unfortunately, both her parents were away when MindaNews came for a visit on December 17, 2024, and only her aunt, Irene Warag (the mother’s sister who serves as the children’s guardian), was around. Warag said that the mother works as a vendor while the father went to Davao de Oro to find work.
Warag said that a few days before the child passed away, they noticed the child’s eyes showing signs of distress, as if struggling with dizziness, accompanied by high fever.
Warag applied some accupressure to the child’s hands, which seemed to alleviate the dizziness temporarily.
However, the child eventually became weak and unwell.
“The next morning, we saw her spitting blood. At first we thought it was ok. The second time it happened, we rushed her to the hospital,” Warag said.
In less than 24 hours, Reyna’s temperature dropped—a telltale sign that she was undergoing dengue’s critical phase—and could not eat properly. Reyna was sent to the ICU, but doctors found out the child already had no pulse and the platelet count was very low. She was declared dead shortly after.
Abby Zyra Chua, Barangay Visayan Village health station head nurse, confirmed Reyna’s death due to dengue.
Going around Reyna’s neighborhood, MindaNews noticed that their pathways have stagnant water trapped in between uneven surfaces of muddy soil, and discarded bottles with either liquor or water inside.
Meanwhile, in Barangay La Filipina, even the son of barangay sanitary inspector Evangeline Obero suffered dengue several times.
She shared that it started way back in January 2024, when his son was hospitalized twice in the same month. Doctors found out that her son had low platelet count, one of the signs of dengue. Her son was bitten by a mosquito around their neighborhood four days earlier.
“We often clean our surroundings, but then there’s plenty of stagnant water around,” she said, referring to anything from pots to pails, plastic bottles and soft drink bottles that contain water.
MindaNews visited Obero’s residence and that of her neighbor, Anita Labitad, who owns two wells. Labitad uses the water from the well for laundry and dishwashing. Sometimes, she’d let the neighbors use it, too. While the wells are covered with plywood when not in use, wiggling mosquito larvae can be observed in the water.
Labitad, 57, said that there is no day that they are not bitten by mosquitoes. But for them, she added, it is just normal.
She said she is aware that residents of Tagum can be vulnerable to mosquitoes because her parents had told her that the city is ‘’a catchment area’’ of floods.
Flooding in the city
The city’s planning and development office agrees with Labitad, with floodwaters from Davao del Norte’s highlands cascading down the mountains and into the lowland that is Tagum. Except for the ricelands to its west and to its south, which leads to the Davao Gulf, most to its north are highlands, including the municipalities of Davao de Oro to its east.
Franz Gregory Naylon, CPDO planning officer, told MindaNews that the city was a “wetland before it was urbanized.” He said that Barangays Visayan Village, La Filipina, Magugpo, and many others that are within residential zones are often flooded when the rains come.
‘Leaders respond, community hesitates’
As far as the City Health Office is concerned, they have “already taken action,” and they just have to continue it.
A year after the state of calamity was declared, the CHO “heavily emphasized” in raising awareness about dengue and its causes, specifically the accumulation of stagnant water in discarded containers, tires, and potted plants, which can serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes, according to Rae Katherine Pongan, CHO-Tagum health education promotion head, in an email sent to MindaNews.
Even before the state of calamity was declared, Pongan said they were already taking measures to combat dengue in an attempt to bring cases down. For example, on July 14, 2023, Mayor Rey T. Uy signed Executive Order No. 83, mandating a city-wide clean-up drive on July 29, 2023, to mitigate and control dengue vectors. The campaign, dubbed “Clean-up Drive Kontra Dengue,” required monthly clean-up drives in every barangay, including Barangay Visayan Village.
The city likewise conducted misting operations in 2,403 households where dengue-carrying mosquitoes thrive.
Pongan said that despite the use of sprays and chemicals to combat dengue, health authorities knew it would be more on community involvement, as families here are “resistant” and “they take [the dengue symptoms] for granted.”
“If your child is complaining that he or she has fever, you must remember that fever is a response to an infection happening inside your body,” Pongan said. “You must bring your child to the hospital,” she added, stressing that “these are the basics that everyone must know.”
A known pediatrician in Davao City, Dr. Diana Dadia, a consultant at the Southern Philippines Medical Center, echoes the same sentiment during the February forum on dengue: “We always tell them, please be more vigilant. Two days of fever, consult a doctor.”
Pongan said the city cannot just lift the state of emergency as the dengue cases in Tagum need to be stabilized first.
“We just need the community to be with us,” Pongan said.
Dr. Dadia has the same advice to communities: “Simply cleaning your house, the elimination of water from your water containers, the following of 5s strategies, everything can be done.”
She is referring to the 5S strategy being pushed by the Department of Health: “Search and destroy, Seek early consultation, Self-protection measures, Support fogging/spraying and Sustain Hydration.”
Obero, the barangay sanitary inspector, laments that people are aware about dengue—what to do to prevent it, and when one gets infected. “But it seems they just don’t want to take action,” she said.
Community awareness
MindaNews asked neighbors of Reyna as to what they know about dengue so they won’t get infected themselves.
Naro Nalangan Jr., Purok Basakan leader in Barangay Visayan Village, said they are collaborating with their barangay in their “Oplan Kontra Dengue,” like continuously cleaning their surroundings, discarding liquids from bottles, and improving drainage.
But he admitted that they only did it “seriously” after Reyna died on November 17, 2024.
Nalangan said that despite the clean-up drives, new dengue cases are still recorded. No matter what they do, mosquitos are still laying their eggs around, he added.
Nalangan said that their health center was surprised when the dengue cases in Purok Basakan suddenly rose at the time of Reyna’s death when it was quiet for a while.
Another neighbor, who preferred to be identified only as “Jen,” said that whatever they do, they can seem to do nothing about the mosquitoes. “The mosquitoes will always be there, even if we keep on cleaning our surroundings. But we’ll keep cleaning this place, because we were told this is the only way to fight dengue. Bahala na uy (Come what may), this is our home,” she said.
In Barangay La Filipina, Barangay Kagawad David Namoc, head of the committee on health, said that despite their clean-up drives and information dissemination, the lack of budget remains a hindrance to decrease dengue cases, particularly in acquiring the chemicals needed to help eradicate dengue.
Barangay La Filipina has a dengue task force that meets every Monday. It is composed of functionaries, such as barangay personnel, including nurses, and purok leaders. But it was created only in the first week of November 2024.
Labitad, who resides in Barangay La Filipina, said that aside from cleaning their surroundings, they are also using insect repellents to protect themselves against dengue.
While the local government of Tagum City has implemented measures to address the dengue crisis, the presence of stagnant water in many areas and the community’s apparent short-term efforts to take dengue prevention seriously, stand out.
Unfortunately for Tagum, dengue is targeting its young—9 of the 11 deaths in 2024 were children below 10 years old.
As Tagumenyos continue to battle this mosquito-borne disease, the challenge remains: Will government interventions be enough, or will community engagement finally bridge the gap in containing dengue?
The answer may lie in the collective response of both leaders and residents, given that fighting dengue requires more than just government efforts, as it demands a shared responsibility among all. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
This story is published with the support of Canal France International under the Media for One Health program.
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