'Mysterious deaths' in Maguindanao town caused by malaria

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  - Local officials said cerebral malaria  could have caused the deaths of 13 villagers in a coastal village in Datu Blah Sinsuat town in Maguindanao in recent weeks.

Moamar Manalao, chairman of Barangay Nalkan in Datu Blah Sinsuat, told reporters that 13 of his constituents died of what they earlier deemed a “mysterious disease” that plagued villages in their surroundings.

Manalao said the victims first complained of severe headaches and painful abdominal spasms before they died.

Manalao said health workers that took blood samples from several patients in Barangay Nalkan have established that the patients were afflicted with malaria.

He said 20 other villagers selected at random also tested positive for malaria.

Mayor Marcial Sinsuat, chairman of the Datu Blah Sinsuat municipal disaster risk reduction council, said there is a history of malaria-related deaths in their municipality.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease of humans and animals.

A victim contracts the disease through a bite from an infected female mosquito, which introduces malaria through its saliva into the circulatory system and to the liver where they mature and reproduce.

The disease causes symptoms that typically include high fever and headache. malaria may lead to coma and death.

Physician Kadil Sinolinding Jr., regional health secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said there are indications that the victims succumbed to cerebral malaria, a serious disease.

Villagers had reported the deaths in Datu Blah Sinsuat to media first.

Sinolinding added that there were also Cholera-related deaths  in the area in recent years.

“We don’t have final conclusions yet based on actual scientific investigations. We have to wait for the report of the team sent to Datu Blah Sinsuat,” Sinolinding said.