PALO, Leyte — Cases of dengue in Eastern Visayas continue to go down as local government units have launched their respective clean-up campaigns to eradicate mosquito breeding areas.

The latest report from the Department of Health (DoH) regional office released on Friday shows that from 21 to 28 September, only 383 new dengue cases were reported in the entire region, which is lower than 469 cases recorded in the week earlier.

However, DoH-8 said that the 13,314 total number of cases and 25 deaths reported since January is still over three times higher than the 3,066 cases recorded last year over the same period.

The DoH-8’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) reported that out of this number of patients since January, 9459 of them were admitted in different hospitals and other health facilities.

RESU also reported that the infection is most prevalent among boys 10 years old and below. It also reported that among the provinces in Eastern Visayas, Leyte recorded the highest number of cases with 4,101 since January or 31 percent of the cases of the entire region.

The reduction in the number of the new dengue patients in DoH’s morbidity week 39 is the second consecutive week where cases have gone down. The reduction of cases coincided with campaigns of various LGUs to eliminate spread of infection.

In Northern Samar, for example, the Provincial Health Board chaired by Gov. Edwin Ongchuan launched a simultaneous “search and destroy” wherein all enjoining municipalities, agencies, establishments and the general public conduct clean up drive every Friday at 4 p.m.