- CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Bacolod City Health Office said Friday, Oct. 28, it logged 13 confirmed cholera cases in eight barangays from Sept. 1 to Oct. 22 this year.
Three of the cases were recorded in Barangay Alijis, where a cholera outbreak has been declared Oct. 25, two each in barangays Handumanan, Granada, and Sum-ag, and one confirmed case each in Mansilingan, Tangub, 40, and Banago.
All confirmed cholera patients have recovered, the CHO said, adding that personal and environmental hygiene have been the contributing factor.
Dr. Grace Tan, head of the CHO Environmental Sanitation Division, also said that there were 203 food-and-waterborne diseases or Acute Gastroenteritis (AGE) cases recorded since last month.
Twenty-four of these cases were logged in Mansilingan, 17 in Singcang, 11 each in Vista Alegre, Tangub, and Taculing, nine each in Alijis, Estefania, Sum-ag, and Villamonte, and the rest spread in 25 other barangays.
Tan said the CHO sanitation inspectors have been meeting with the barangays captains concerned for health education and other mitigating measures.
CHO head, Dr. Ma. Carmela Gensoli, said that cholera is caused by ingesting water or food contaminated by the cholera bacterium, causing an infected person to suffer from severe diarrhea and vomiting.
She urged everyone to practice basic hygiene and sanitation, and to immediately report cholera cases for everybody’s safety.
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, meanwhile, urged the public to boil water coming from sources of doubtful potability before drinking.
“There has been an alarming increase in the number of cholera cases in the province,” Lacson said in his public health advisory Oct. 27, adding that the Negros Occidental Health Surveillance System reported 17 confirmed cases, as of Oct. 25,
Until this year, there had been zero cases of cholera since last detected in 2018, the governor said./CGC
