The Department of Health sent a team from the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) to Digos City, Davao del Sur to validate the 253 dengue cases with 10 deaths reported in the media last July 8. The news report also said that Digos City Mayor Joseph Peñas declared a state of calamity. Barangay Tres de Mayo had the most (23%) cases.   The team coordinated with the regional office of the DOH (CHD – Davao Region) and the local government of Digos City, including its City Health Office (CHO) that reported the cases.   The team also started to review the hospital records of patients, validate data from the CHO, the Provincial Health Office (PHO), Regional Epidemiology & Surveillance Unit, and the Philippine Integrated Disease Surveillance & Response, and conduct an entomological survey in the five identified barangays with the highest number of cases and an ocular survey of areas with cases. Blood samples were drawn from those cases admitted in the different private and government hospitals. In coordination with the DOH, the CHO initiated fogging in the affected barangays, conducted information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns, managed cases, and continued surveillance in the city. read more

About 280,000 external defibrillators used worldwide in health care facilities, public places, or in the home may malfunction during attempts to rescue people in sudden cardiac arrest, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned today.