4 dead in Samar diarrhea outbreak

TACLOBAN CITY — Health officials here reported a diarrhea outbreak in Guian, Eastern Samar, with four confirmed deaths.

Some 279 persons have also been affected by the disease. Boyd Cerro, sentinnel nurse of the Department of health field office 8 said the first six cases were reported in Barangay Bungtod, more than a kilometer away from the town proper last Oct. 29.

A report from the Regional Epemiology and Surveillance Unit of the DOH here said that contaminated drinking water was the main cause of the dirrhrea outbreak. Cerro said 42 other barangays in Guian also reported diarrhea cases.

The casualties include three children, the youngest of whom was nine years old.

Jean Marie Egargo, municipal health officer of Guian, said that out of the 279 persons afflicted with diarrhea, 203 were children.

"But we have already distributed the necessary oral medicines like IV fluids to all affected barangays. We also asked our people to boil their drinking water," Egargo told the media in an earlier interview.

She disclosed that the town, composed of 60 barangays, has no potable water system.<