LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – A total of 68 suspected cases of dengue fever had already been recorded in Pangasinan from January to June 25 this year, according to a report of the Provincial Health Office.

Assistant Provincial Health Office Ana Ma. Theresa de Guzman said on Tuesday that on record, two persons already died from all these suspected cases.  These are an eight year old boy from Dasol and another, a 16 year old boy from Lingayen.

De Guzman said there were two deaths due to dengue, although these are yet to be confirmed by the submission of their respective death certificates by the Sacred heart Hospital in Urdaneta City, where they died.

Of the 68 suspected dengue cases registered so far, none of it was confirmed yet, De Guzman said.

Of the 68 recorded, the highest was in Dagupan City at 27 with Lingayen as the second highest at six with one death. No death was recorded in Dagupan so far.

In Dasol, there were only two cases registered but of the two, one died. There were also five cases that were registered in Calasiao.

Statistics showed that 45 percent of the dengue cases were children, the youngest was seven months old who was from Manaoag town. The oldest dengue case so far is 39 years old.

De Guzman however, called on Pangasinenses not to worry because the cases of dengue this year appear to be much lower than last year’s.

This can be gleaned from records from January to May 2006 that showed there were 90 that were recorded as compared to 37 for the same period this year.

De Guzman clarified that although there were more dengue cases that were recorded from July to September last year, there was no outbreak of the disease whatsoever.

For the whole 2006 in Pangasinan, cases of dengue reached 2,168 with a mortality of 23.

“In that  year, we only reached the alert threshold. We did not reach the epidemic or the outbreak threshold, as erroneously reported by a DOH (Department of Health). (PNA)