Sarangani now Malaria free

By BEVERLY C. PAOYON

ALABEL, Sarangani (December 7, 2013) - The Provincial Health Office (PHO) has reported Sarangani is now free from Malaria, a feat the provincial government claimed after inclusive initiatives had been launched to contain the mosquito-borne disease.

PHO officer-in-charge Dr. Arvin Alejandro said cases gradually went down from 1,700 in 2006, 37 in 2010, 28 in 2011, four in 2012 until a zero case in this year's record.

Alejandro credited the drop to the provincial government's efforts in institutionalizing anti-Malaria initiatives from 2007 to 2011 at the barangay level which Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. thru Global Fund, financed with around P25 million.

To support this, he said, the PHO "strengthened local system supporting Malaria, trained a lot of sprayers, identified houses and we always connect that with Dengue para comprehensive yung ating ginawa. We do not do it for Malaria alone but we do it also for mosquito borne-disease."

In order to sustain the zero case record, Alejandro said his office has expanded the containment of the disease to adjacent barangays of other municipalities like parts of Palimbang in Sultan Kudarat and areas near Glan with identified transmission of cases.

Dengue, however, is not as prevalent as in other provinces. Alejandro said "nako-contain naman yung cases."

Also, he said, the PHO wanted "to strengthen the event-based monitoring with regards to all diseases under surveillance. We don’t talk only about Malaria. We don’t talk only about Dengue, but we talk also of other diseases like measles, tetanus, and others."

"Ang mga community na mismo ang ini-strengthen na natin. Starting next year, sila na 'yung i-strengthen natin. Sila mismo ang mga i-identity ng mga particular problems na ito at yan ay makarating kaagad kung hindi man sa municipal level to the provincial level para ma-actionan,” Alejandro said. (Beverly C. Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)