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Courtney Weatherburne reporting
If you tune into news often, you have definitely seen this Dengue commercial air over and over. Many of you can even recite some of the lines of the script, although the commercial sends a clear message on key measures to prevent the spread of Dengue, cases are on the rise.

Javier Alpuche, Senior Public Health Inspector
"In late June early July we started seeing an increase in the number of cases of dengue specifically here in Belize City. What we basically also noted was that while the number of dengue cases was somewhat expected what we were having is a higher number of dengue hemorrhagic dengue cases being reported. At that time when we detected that increase in cases we of course did a number of things; one of the things that we did was enhance the surveillance to ensure that we were collecting all the necessary data on dengue cases, not only from the public hospitals, but from the private hospitals as well including laboratories. To date since January to now we are taking about 331 cases and of these 247 are classical dengue and 84 are dengue hemorrhagic fever and that's for the entire Belize District because we do have cases being reported from some of the rural communities as well."

"We have what we know as endemic channels which basically compares data for the last 5 - 6 years and by that it give us an idea where we are with the current year 2014. When we make that comparison that's where we see that in deed we had high number of cases being reported all the way from July like I said and it dip down in the first week in September, but then it seems could be rising again, so we are keeping a close eye on what is occurring there."

Now, there are key areas in Belize City from which these cases are emerging .

Javier Alpuche, Senior Public Health Inspector
"The majority of cases I would say 80% - 90% of the cases being reported for Belize City come from the South side Belize City and even from south side Belize City we have identified some areas that are producing most of the cases and most of our interventions are focus on that area. We have had some success with interventions implemented. However, it is challenging because of the environmental conditions that are found in these areas as well as the community participation that we need to get."

St. Martin residents took a step in the right direction by calling the Central Health Region to inspect their land and perform Thermal fogging, but while the department is doing it's part, residents must do theirs by keeping their yards clean.

Keisha Thompson, St. Martin's Area
"They have like the commercials with it that is running. My uncle had the real bad one; he was in the hospital, so I think there are enough about dengue. We already talk about how we will deal with it to clean up the whole yard to prevent the dengue because I don't want to end up in the hospital, especially if you have young children."

Community input is only one aspect of the problem. Improper drainage and waste disposal play a crucial role in the spread of this disease.

Javier Alpuche, Senior Public Health Inspector
"It definitely does add on to what you just mention, the fact that in my opinion we have a very poor solid waste for garbage collection system in this city. Add on to that as well in some areas the public uses garbage for land filling and that is posing in deed problem for us as well."

Apart from that, clinics and hospitals must also collaborate with the Health Region to provide timely reports

Oneida Smith, Regional Health Manager, Central Health Region
"We do daily surveillance for dengue, for communicable disease and right now especially for dengue and we do this in the private and public facilities and what we would like to get is in a timely manner so that we can put measures in place and I'm asking the private facilities to please give us the report daily, so that we can do something early. When we get it late it delays our activities in terms of doing surveillance for the patience and the surrounding areas."

The Central Health Region is organizing a clean- up campaign on Saturday and Sunday from 7 in the morning to 4 in the evening. It will take place in the areas within the Central American Blvd, Neals Pen Road and Ceasar Ridge Road. They encourage residents to properly bag and bring out their garbage.