DOH raises alert on summer diseases

SUMMER is here and so are the summer diseases!

The Department of Health (DOH) regional office in Iloilo City has raised the alert with a health advisory on summer diseases such as heat stroke, boil, prickly heat, sunburn, and sore eyes.

DOH also raised the alert on food safety, water sanitation and the health effects brought by the El Niño phenomenon.

Dr. May Ann Sta Lucia, Medical Officer III and regional health emergency management staff coordinator, said the DOH regional office and its health centers will operate 24/7 even during the holidays to ensure health safety of the populace.

Sta. Lucia said that first aid teams composed of doctors and nurses and health responders in the field will be deployed during vacation and the Holy Week celebration areas such as those celebrating the “Passion of the Cross” or those going out in the beaches.

Sta. Lucia said the period of March to May is vacation time and fiesta season in the country. To avoid food poisoning, diarrhea, heat-associated ailments and recreation-associated injuries, the public is advised to take precautions.

The doctors said that heat stroke has no specific age bracket and even children are prone to heat strokes if allowed to stay long under the sun.

She said people must limit their time spent outdoors and to drink plenty of water.

Water sanitation deals with the promotion and provision of safe drinking water for contamination can be contracted during handling, transport and storage.

Another common summer disease is “boil” with a pus-filled infection of the skin. It usually starts as an infection in a hair follicle and spreads in the surrounding areas with swelling and redness of the skin.

Prickly heat is a heat rash characterized by tiny bumps or water blisters brought by clogging of sweat glands and usually at the forehead, body folds, the upper arm and chest. The most common treat is by applying corn starch.

Sunburn occurs when the skin is exposed to the sun or other ultraviolet light that exceeds the ability of the body's protective pigment and melanin to protect the skin. It is painful and worst between 6 to 48 hours.

Sore eyes or viral conjunctivitis is transmitted by direct contact by one's eyes with hands contaminated with eye secretions of an infected person. It is characterized by redness of the eyes with pain and itching sensation.