Typhoid outbreak downs 89 students in E. Samar

CEBU, Philippines - At least 109 students from a public school in Borongan City of Eastern Samar were rushed to two hospitals purportedly due to typhoid fever.

However, Department of Health-8 Assistant Regional Director Paula Sydiongco said only 89 were diagnosed to have been afflicted by the illness, and five of them were confined at the hospital to this day, as the rest were declared out-patients.

Of those diagnosed with typhoid, 72 were treated at the Borongan Doctors Hospital, and 17 others were at the

Sydiongco also said the Borongan City government had mobilized its medical personnel, in coordination with the DOH-8’s epidemiology division, to verify if there were others affected by the ailment.

“Only 89 cases fit the case definition of a typhoid fever, and we are still conducting an investigation into the cause of the typhoid outbreak, and a house-to-house visitation,” she told The Freeman.

It was learned that 72 were treated at the Borongan Doctors Hospital and 17 others were treated at the Provincial Hospital.

All of them were students of the Maypandan National High School, in one of the coastal villages of Borongan, two kilometers away from the city proper.

DOH-8 officials had suspected contaminated water from the school’s faucet and the dirty handlers selling food outside the school, as among the possible causes of the typhoid fever outbreak. —Miriam Garcia Desacada (FREEMAN)