More doctors dispatched to malaria-stricken Vizcaya villages

ALFONSO CASTAñEDA — The Department of Health and the provincial government have sent an additional team of doctors and other medical personnel in the six villages here stricken with malaria.

Earlier, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan placed the remote mountain barangays of Pelaway, Cawayan, Lipuga and Abuyo here and Barangays Talbe and Abaca in Dupax del Norte town under a state of calamity following the outbreak of the illness.

These affected villages are the primary impact zones of the multi-million peso Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation and Power Project owned by the California Energy (CE).

Last week, the regional and provincial health offices also sent a team of doctors, sanitary inspectors and medical technologists to reinforce the limited personnel of the local government unit due to rising cases of malaria here.

Gov. Rodolfo Agbayani said that at least 15 deaths were already confirmed while more than 200 have been affected by the illness.

A nine-month-old boy was the youngest so far found to have afflicted with the disease following yesterday’s mass blood testing in remote Barangay Lipuga.

Dr. Antonio Parong of the Department of Health (DOH) here said they still need more medical assistance, especially funds for anti-malaria medicines as the outbreak is still ongoing.

Agbayani has ordered another round of house-to-house spraying to rid the area of the anopheles feminine mosquito, the carrier of the plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax.