Quirino b’gay under quarantine

CABARROGUIS, Quirino — Health authorities have placed a mountainous barangay here where three suspected meningococcemia cases, including a Baguio City college student, hail from, under quarantine.

Health workers have kept a close watch on Barangay Dibibi after two youths who have had close contact with the student themselves suffered from fever and hematoma and were rushed to the Quirino provincial hospital last Thursday.

Provincial board member Eleazar Balderas, who chairs the board’s health committee, said experts of the Department of Health’s National Center for Epidemiology visited Barangay Dibibi on Friday and set up a quarantine checkpoint to ensure that the deadly bacterial disease would not infect other residents.

Balderas, however, advised Dibibi residents not to panic following reports that at least five families have fled the village.

"There has been a barrage of wrong information on the disease kaya natatakot ang mga tao (that’s why the people are getting scared)," he said.

Provincial health officer Tagumpay Felismino denied rumors that one of the three suspected meningococcemia cases has been comatose, saying all three have been responding well to medicines given them.

The press clubs in Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya, in an agreement with the DOH, pledged to help disseminate information on meningococcemia. The Department of Education has directed school principals to educate their pupils on preventive measures.

A similar information drive is underway in the Ilocos region as a driver from Narvacan, Ilocos Sur died this week after being confined for two days in the hospital.

The man suffered a swollen face and dark rashes all over his body days after he drove to Baguio City a suspected meningococcemia patient, who eventually died on New Year’s Eve.

The driver is one of five suspected meningococcemia cases so far reported in the Ilocos region. Only one of the four other patients, all from Pangasinan, survived.

In Baguio City, three patients were still in isolation at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center for showing symptoms of meningococcemia, city public information officer Ramon Dacawi said.

Since Jan. 1 alone, at least four people have died due to suspected meningococcemia in Baguio and elsewhere in the Cordilleras.

According to the city health department, there have been at least 53 suspected meningococcemia cases in the Cordilleras, including Baguio, since March 2004. Twenty-four of them died.

The DOH and the World Health Organization have put up a "command post" in the upland city to contain the spread of the disease.

With the cooperation of the public, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit is confident that the disease can be contained in one to two weeks in time for the Panagbenga or Flower Festival this February.

Elsewhere, in Toledo City, Cebu, health officials are fielding a team to monitor the family members and other people who have had close contact with a 10-month-old boy who died of suspected meningococcemia at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) last Jan. 4.

"We will do some tests on the family members to see if meningococcemia was really the cause of the child’s death," said Toledo City health chief Jesusa Bacus.

The baby boy died after developing rashes and flu-like symptoms of meningococcemia, according to CCMC chief Felicitas Manaloto.

In Zamboanga City, health authorities allayed residents’ fear of a possible outbreak, saying the death of a three-year-old girl last Thursday was still not conclusively caused by meningococcemia.

The girl was rushed by her parents to the Western Mindanao Medical Center after she suffered from diarrhea, rashes and severe fever.

In the Caraga region, a one-year-old girl from Talacogon, Agusan del Sur reportedly died of meningococcemia late last year.

Dr. Joel Esparagoza, provincial health officer, said the possible spread of the dreaded bacterial disease was contained after the girl’s family members and their neighbors were given medicines. — With Artemio Dumlao, Vic Alhambra Jr., Ben Serrano, Roel Pareño and Freeman News Service