Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Human waste bacteria blamed
THE National Epidemiology Center (NEC) of the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the presence of bacteria in 12 out of the 14 rectal swabs from diarrhea patients in Loon, Bohol.
The results showed that the shigella flexneri bacteria was responsible for the bacillary dysentery or diarrhea among the patients, said NEC Acting Director Enrique Tayag.
Compared with amoeba, shigella flexneri spreads very easily.
The presence of the bacteria means that the water source of Loon town in Bohol Province has been contaminated, Tayag told Sun.Star Cebu.
“The presence of shigella flexneri means water contamination from human feces,” he explained.
Loon Mayor Cesar Lopez, also a doctor, said that the bacteria come mostly from fecal oral root, which means that “it came from water and that it spreads through person-to-person contact.”
However, DOH is still awaiting the results of the water analysis from at least three water sources of Loon and two refilling stations.
The water analysis is being done by the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City.
Tayag said that even if NEC has already pinpointed the bacteria, they will still need the results of the water analysis for comparison.
NEC recommended double chlorination in the municipality’s water sources.
Chlorine
Lopez said that the local government has already implemented double dosing of chlorine in the water sources.
The town has also advocated for household chlorination.
Lopez said the public can already get water from the water source but for safety measures, each household should also practice self-chlorination.
The DOH and Loon have distributed chlorine for household use.
Residents were also told to boil their drinking water.
Hand washing
NEC also recommended proper hygiene such as constant hand washing as well as proper waste disposal.
One of the major problems of Loon is that some houses, especially in the mountain barangays, do not have their own toilets. Because of this, locals are used to disposing of their human wastes outside their homes.
The incessant rains last December until the early part of January could have caused the fecal matter to seep into the water sources.
Lopez said that with this development, the local government should implement the Sanitation Code of the Philippines.
The mayor explained that under the law, each household should have its own sanitary toilet.
In an earlier interview with Sun.Star Cebu, the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit of the DOH 7, through Renan Cimafranca also recommended that Loon improve the perimeter fence of it water source.
Lopez admitted that their perimeter fence is not that strong but promised that they are correcting this.
Lopez said that since last Dec. 25, there have been 408 victims of the diarrhea outbreak, with two fatalities-a three-year-old girl and a 57-year-old woman.
But he said that the 58-year-old woman reported as the latest fatality of the outbreak died of infection in the upper respiratory system.
There were 369 admissions in the hospitals.
As of yesterday, only some 80 patients remain in the Natalio Castillo Memorial Hospital. (JGA)
