This developed as DOH chief epidemiologist Dr. Eric Tayag clarified that the 57-year-old man who reportedly died of dysentery actually succumbed to a heart ailment.
This means that only 10-year-old Leah May Lampara of barangay Cogon Norte in Loon town has died of the illness.
Tayag said the 15 patients were hospitalized after complaining of "watery diarrhea." He could not immediately ascertain how many residents were affected by the dysentery epidemic, which the DOH declared Monday.
The DOH sent yesterday a team of three experts to Bohol to help contain the epidemic, which mostly affected the coastal villages of Moto Norte, Moto Sur, Cogon Norte, Basac and Napo.
Tayag urged residents in these communities to observe proper food handling and personal hygiene and drink safe water to avoid getting infected with dysentery.
The victims developed acute diarrhea with bloody stools — indicating that they suffered from dysentery, which is characterized by the inflammation of the lining of the large intestines that cause abdominal pain and diarrhea with feces containing mucus and blood.
Several types of microorganisms can cause dysentery but the most common are the shigella bacteria and amoeba.
Hospital officials observed that diarrhea cases began to pour in from Northern Bohol starting Dec. 16 last year. On Friday, however, they raised an alert after some 50 people were rushed to hospital for diarrhea, Tayag said.