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Friday, January 07, 2005
3rd death from fatal illness in city this year
By Rimaliza Opiņa
BAGUIO CITY -- Barely a week into 2005 and the fatal blood disease that has hounded the city claimed yet another life on Wednesday, local health officials said Thursday.
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit admitted in Manila that the number of those afflicted with meningococcemia, an acute infection of the bloodstream, in Baguio was on the rise.
The 16-year-old female patient who died Wednesday night was the third person in the city to have succumbed to the disease, caused by a bacteria that live in an individual's upper respiratory tract and spread through droplets released when a person sneezes.
Dr. Antonio Bautista, head of the Infectious Disease Cluster of the Department of Health (DOH) in Cordillera, said the patient was brought to the Baguio General Hospital Contagious Diseases Pavilion around 6 p.m. Wednesday and she died two hours after she was brought in.
A 15-year-old male was also admitted to the same hospital on the same day for suspected meningococcemia and is still under observation.
Dayrit admitted Thursday there was an upsurge in the number of meningococcemia cases in Baguio but said this was no cause for alarm.
From January 1 to 5, at least 20 suspected cases of meningococcemia were recorded in Baguio.
Another 40 persons were brought to various sentinel hospitals in Baguio from October to December 2004 for suspected meningococcemia.
Of the total 60 cases, doctors were able to confirm five to be meningococcemia and three of these have died.
"We're saying it's a cause for concern but there's no need to be alarmed," Dayrit said, adding that government was doing all it can to contain the problem.
"There is still some transmission. The situation is still happening but we've contained it initially," he added.
Dayrit said 90 percent of the meningococcemia cases in the country were from Baguio.
Other areas that reported meningococcemia include Tabuk in Kalinga, Pangasinan and Bauko, Mt. Province but the suspected cases had been fully contained.
There was, however, a report of a possible new case in Bauko, a 23-year-old male who was admitted to the Luis Hora Hospital Thursday and is still under observation there.
Baguio has approved the release of P4 million from its calamity funds, the use of which was made possible when the local government declared the city under a state of calamity.
Mayor Braulio Yaranon said the city will continue with its preventive treatment, which entails giving antibiotics to people believed to have come into close contact with meningococcemia patients.
This will continue until such time when health officials declare that the disease has been contained.
Health Secretary Dayrit said government intends to fully contain the spread of the bacteria in two weeks.
To do this, Dayrit said they need the cooperation of the people of Baguio City.
"The goal is to eventually stop the transmission because there is a chain of transmission and that's the way it's been spreading. (But) we need to get this people understand and be out of the denial stage and make them realize that there is a problem (because it's the only way to get their cooperation)," Dayrit said.
He added that the market place in Baguio was identified as the place of transmission and he is advising people going there to wear surgical masks for protection.
The health department has set up a command post that will conduct laboratory tests, do contact tracing and determine the origin of the bacteria.
Meningococcemia has an incubation period of three to four days and symptoms of the ailment include fever, stiff neck, convulsion, delirium, altered mental status, vomiting, cough, sore throat and other respiratory symptoms, rashes which later on appear like bruises and unstable vital signs.
Dr. Troy Gepte of the National Epidemiology Unit, meanwhile, said it was safe to eat fruits and vegetables coming from the Cordillera region.
Gepte said even souvenir items and use clothes coming from the city's ukay-ukay stalls are safe.
He explained the bacteria that cause the disease do not thrive outside the body. (With Marie S. Neri)
(January 7, 2005 issue)
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