Parañaque City Mayor Eric Olivarez instructed the City Health Office (CHO) to deploy more doctors, health workers, and trained medical professionals to 16 barangay health centers to facilitate the delivery of health services, including Covid-19 vaccination and early detection of dengue.
Olivarez told the CHO to enhance its intervention measures to counter the increasing number of dengue cases brought about by the rainy season as well as to curb the rising Covid-19 cases as reported by the Department of Health (DOH).
“All services and consultations in the health centers are free of charge. Our health centers can even provide early detection for dengue because they are equipped with test kits that are administered by licensed medical technologists, aside from our medical doctors,” Olivarez said.
The mayor also said other services available that are free-of-charge are routine immunizations for children, regular consultations, pre-natal checkups, family planning counseling, and anti-tuberculosis DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Strategy).
Olivarez, who is a licensed nurse and an educator, said the barangay health centers serve as the city’s most important hub for health information dissemination on how people may prevent themselves from getting sick.
“We are proud to say that we are very close to normalizing the delivery of our health programs, and we have established an effective system to reach our vulnerable populations to provide the necessary care through the barangay health centers,” the mayor said.
The city government, in partnership with the DOH, recently led a health summit to discuss the effective ways to reduce Water-borne infectious diseases, Influenza, Leptospirosis, and Dengue or WILD, four diseases that usually come with the rainy season.
The summit was held under the auspices of the National Aedes-Borne Viral Diseases Prevention and Control Program (NAVDPCP) at the Greenheights Village Covered Court in Barangay Isidro.
Olivarez said the WILD program will be launched in the barangay health centers.