Nearly two dozens of people have died because of dengue hemorrhagic fever in Western Visayas so far this year.
The Department of Health (DOH-6) logged 23 dengue deaths from January 1 to June 4.
Negros Occidental accounted for the most number of deaths with 7, followed by Iloilo province, 6; Antique, 5; Bacolod City, 4; and Iloilo City, 1.
Aklan, Capiz, and Guimaras have zero dengue deaths.
The number of cases in the region has already reached 2,520, higher by 196 percent compared to 850 cases recorded last year.
Negros Occidental posted the highest increase at 456 percent, followed by Antique, 276 percent; and Iloilo province and Aklan at 179 percent each.
Most or thirty-eight percent of the deaths came from the 1 to 10 years old age group.
Meanwhile, 136 barangays in the region have clustering of dengue cases or have at least three cases within four consecutive weeks.
Sixty-six of these barangays are in Negros Occidental 39 in Antique, 12 in Bacolod City, 10 in Iloilo province, 4 in Capiz, 3 from Iloilo City and 1 each from Guimaras and Aklan.
In Iloilo province, the barangays with clustering of cases are Qui-anan (18 cases), Lawigan (18 cases), and Igburi (three cases) in San Joaquin town; Bagumbayan Poblacion (four cases), Burgos-Gengos (three cases), and Cabubugan (three cases) in Guimbal; Lanag Sur(11 cases) and Teniento Benito (3 cases) in Tubungan; Tumagboc (3 cases) in Miagao; and Poblacion Ilaya (3 cases) in Passi City.IMT
