Cleaning of toys urged to prevent infections

THE Department of Health (DOH) in Northern Mindanao Region is urging parents and day-care personnel to clean and disinfect toys, including teaching tools that are easily shared with other children to prevent Enterovirus-71 (EV-71) infections.

Dr. David Mendoza, DOH regional coordinator, said Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona instructed the DOH National Epidemiology Center to include EV-71 infection as a notifiable disease in the country.

Mendoza also said proper disposal of baby diapers or human waste, strict personal hygiene and regular hand washing can prevent the spread of the virus.

Ona has also compelled all health providers, particularly doctors, to report individual cases or outbreak.

The DOH and the World Health Organization (WHO) clarified that the Cambodian EV-71 was of the encephalitis type and not hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) as earlier reported.

Ona said compulsory notification will improve monitoring of EV-71 infections and ensure that necessary measures are in place to guarantee that the Philippines is free from the highly fatal severe form of EV-71 infections that claimed the lives of at least 60 children in Cambodia since April.

EV-71 causes different diseases of varying intensity that include the often mild hand, foot and mouth disease, acute respiratory disease, acute flaccid paralysis (polio-like) and the deadly brainstem encephalitis.

Mendoza said that EV-71 infection is still very rare in the Philippines.

Although there is no travel restriction yet to and from Cambodia, incoming passengers are subjected to thermal screening upon arrival in all international airports.