Last January, the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) ordered around 200 bags of frozen plasma for P500,000 to P800,000. This is for the first time the public hospital has bought such a large number of fresh frozen plasma packets.

Promencio Calamba, who is the Laboratory Head of CCMC, said that these packets will be given free of cost to those patients who are admitted in the hospital with dengue disease.

The hospital officials are doing their best to control the spread of the disease. It is apposite to note that till Friday as many as 151 dengue fever patients have been admitted in three hospitals in Cebu region.

One of the hospitals named the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) has 108 patients, out of which 98 are children.

On Sept. 2, almost 39 cases of dengue fever were reported in the VSMMC and 34 of them were children.

Dr. Lee James Maratas, who is the Head of CCMC Pediatrics, said that plasma will be of great help in treating dengue patients, particularly those patients who have developed some complications.

Those patients who have low plasma content and have lost fluids in the clotting will be given frozen plasma. Plasma is considered the liquid component of blood.