SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) regional office here declared yesterday an outbreak of leptospirosis in the adjacent towns of Bauang, Naguilian, and Aringay.
Dr. Eduardo Janairo, DOH regional director, said 46 cases in Bauang were recorded including five deaths, Naguilian had 26 cases and three casualties, while Aringay had 28 cases and one death.
Janairo said he has dispatched teams to the said towns to coordinate with local government units, conduct community assemblies, and assess the environmental situation after the recent calamities.
Several health personnel also sprayed garbage piles and carcasses of dead animals and distributed doxycycline to residents in risk areas.
Janairo said they are mobilizing all available resources to control the outbreak and advised residents to wear protective devices such as boots.
“Water contaminated with the urine of rats is the principal culprit of this dreaded disease,” he said.
A total of 268 cases all over Region 1 have already been recorded, including 24 deaths.
Labor wants preventive treatment
The country’s largest labor group yesterday called on employers to voluntarily provide free preventive treatment for workers as a safeguard against leptospirosis.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said employers should be considerate of their employees, particularly those coming from areas affected by typhoons “Pepeng” and “Ondoy.”
TUCP spokesman Alex Aguilar said thousands of workers are at great risk of acquiring the deadly disease since they have to wade through flood when going to work.
“Many homes of workers are still under floodwaters and they have no other choice but to wade through it because they need to work to earn money for their family,” Aguilar said.
He urged employers to help the government by giving out free prophylaxis to their workers to protect them from possible leptospirosis infection.
“Doxycycline is not expensive so employers can well afford to provide them to their workers for free as well as free boots to protect them from the deadly disease,” Aguilar said.
“Leptospirosis has caused the death of close to 200 people in Metro Manila alone, thus the need for concerted action to prevent the spread of the disease,” he said.
Aguilar said the TUCP is also giving free prophylaxis to their members from Laguna and other flood areas of Metro Manila.
“We already have a stock of prophylaxis capsules enough to cover about 10,000 workers so our doctors are going out to distribute them to our members,” he said.
Aguilar added that TUCP is also conducting an awareness campaign among members on how to avoid leptospirosis and distributing school supplies to their affected members.
“Those wanting free preventive treatment from leptospirosis can come to the TUCP office in Quezon City,” he said, noting that they are also giving free treatment even to non-TUCP members.
Foreign experts to assist locals
Meanwhile, foreign experts from the World Health Organization Global Outbreak Alert Response Network, consisting of specialists from the Leptospirosis Center of Netherlands, are now in the country to help analyze the cases.
According to Dr. Eric Tayag, director of the DOH National Epidemiology Center, the experts will help their local counterparts in studying the surge in leptospirosis cases in areas submerged in floodwaters brought about by the recent typhoons.
“By identifying the strain, we can also identify the animal where the strain originated as there are strains that are specific only to certain animals,” he maintained.
The study would be focused on determining why many infected individuals have died and the complications that accompanied the disease.
As of Oct. 26, the DOH had recorded a total of 2,158 cases including 167 deaths.
The DOH is now closely monitoring 34 barangays observed to have clustering of leptospirosis cases.
These barangays are found in Pasay City, Valenzuela, Las Pinas City, Muntinlupa City, Makati City, Caloocan City, Taguig, Manila, Pasig City, Marikina City, Quezon City, Paranaque City and Malabon. – Sheila Crisostomo, Mayen Jaymalin