DOH reports: Quake dislocates 597,598 families

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Some 597,598 families in 1,319 barangays of 54 towns and six cities in six provinces in Central Visayas were dislocated in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck on Oct. 15, with Bohol province badly devastated, the Department of Health reported.

Of this number, a total of 194 death toll and 651 injured. Bohol had (as of the latest count) 188 deaths and 558 injured, Cebu had 12 deaths and 89 injured, Siquijor had one and three, and Negros Oriental had zero and one injured.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona confirmed this to the media during the turnover of the hygiene kits by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), represented by mission director Gloria Steele, and World Health Organization (WHO) represented by Dr. Julie Hall.

Governor Edgar Chatto received the kits from USAID in the presence of national and regional health and social officials in a ceremony at governor's mansion yesterday morning in this city. He thanked the USAID, WHO and DOH for the assistance.

Ona said DOH has provided the needed services, divided into clusters. In coordination with Bohol Provincial Health Office and other health workers, it already served a total of 82,638 patients in the region.

Of these some 66,448 individuals were taken care of with water/sanitation hygiene; 6,103 with health services thru consultations and treatment; 8,788 with nutrition/food supplementation; and 1,299 with mental/psychological health services, he said.

The DOH has conducted a total of 70 surgery operations, itemized as follows: 12 skeletal tractions, 32 wound suturings, 16 wound debridements, four hip/spinal castings, and two open reductions w/ external fixation, among other operations.

"Majority of them were operated at Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital, a DOH run hospital in this city, conducted by physicians from the East Avenue Medical Center and Quirino Memorial Medical Center, DOH records show.

Some 90 diarrhea patients were being treated also, 25 of them at Danao town rural health center, 23 at Calape, 10 in Tubigon, nine in Sevilla, and five in Alburquerque.

DOH said most of the hospitals in the region, including those provincial-managed, were not spared from the tremor "but remain functional and operational." In Loon town, makeshift huts or tents served as hospitals to treat patients.

Thirteen hospitals in Bohol were badly damaged and nine in Cebu. A total of 52 rural health stations in Bohol were affected, six of   them totally destroyed, while in Cebu, nine were partly damaged, and four in Siquijor.

DOH said it poured a total of   P7,474,178 in logistical support for medical supplies and medicines.  (FREEMAN)