- GILBERT BAYORAN
A team of epidemiologists from the Department of Health arrived March 1 in Iloilo City for a briefing on the surging cases of amoebiasis in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
DOH6 regional director Adriano Suba-an said that the six-man team of epidemiologists from the central office will augment the regional team dispatched to San Carlos on Feb. 22, to help address cases of amoebiasis, in collaboration with the provincial and city health offices.
Based on reports from the San Carlos City Hospital, 268 amoebiasis and acute gastroenteritis (AGE) patients were admitted from Feb. 1 to March 1 this year.
As of this day, 58 amoebiasis and 28 AGE patients are still confined in the hospital, the report added.
A state of health emergency has been declared by Mayor Renato Gustilo in San Carlos since Feb. 22 due to rapid increase in amoebiasis cases.
But Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stressed Tuesday that the LGU has to seek guidance first from the DOH before it can declare a state of health emergency.
An unidentified bacterium was found in water samples taken from the houses of amoebiasis patients and the main line of the water district and deep wells, based on the “unofficial” results of the in-house laboratory testing conducted by the city government.
Gustilo said the samples were also sent to a diagnostic laboratory in Bacolod City, for validation and confirmation, with the results expected to be known this Friday.
Amoebiasis, or amoebic dysentery, is an infection of the intestines caused by a parasitic amoeba Entamoeba histolytica. Symptoms may include lethargy, loss of weight, colonic ulcerations, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or bloody diarrhea.
Gustilo, in Executive Order 79 dated Feb. 22, ordered all barangay captains to coordinate with their respective barangay health workers to conduct “recorida” for public awareness.
The mayor reiterated that the safest way to avoid amoebiasis is to use boiled water for drinking. In a press briefing on Feb. 28, Vergeire said the deployment of epidemiologists to San Carlos City is part of the national government’s effort to confirm if the situation warrants such as a declaration from the LGU./GPB
