Thursday, September 11, 2008 City steps up drive vs cholera
THE Dagupan City Health Office (CHO) has intensified its campaign against cholera (acute gastroenteritis or AGE).
City Health Officer Leonard Carbonell said he has dispatched sanitation teams to conduct random sampling of water (raw and purified) at water refilling stations in the city.
CHO staff, midwives, and barangay health workers are going around the barangays conducting information and education campaign on cholera.
There were three cases recently (two of the victims aged two and three years old) from Barangays Pugaro and Lomboy (island barangays) and Pogo Chico (a swampy area).
Carbonell said he has also made a request to the Dagupan City Water District to conduct chlorine flushing on their water pipes in the areas to ensure the pipes are clean.
Accordingly, Pugaro has no water service as the underwater water pipe going to the barangay was damaged.
Carbonell said the number of victims is far from alarming but he made the information and education campaign citywide to prevent further incidents. Diarrhea surveillance is being conducted daily.
“I don’t want to wake up one morning with an outbreak,” he remarked.
“We are not just into information dissemination. We want to attain sustainable sanitation through behavioral change. This means the people will continuously practice (proper hygiene) what they learned,” he said.
Carbonell said the last incidents of cholera in the city were in the year 2000. In 2004, there was an epidemic in some parts of Pangasinan.
CHO records showed that there were 1,915 cases of diarrhea in year 2003; 1,770 cases in 2004; 1,912 cases in 2005; and 1,645 cases in 2007. There have been 888 so far from January to August this year.
Meanwhile, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) and other health officials from all over the province and in the Ilocos Region had a scheduled conference on Wednesday afternoon in Lingayen to discuss the matter.
Accordingly, there have been a number of cholera cases in some parts of Pangasinan - some were allegedly in the town of Bayambang but allegedly, information was being kept until Wednesday.
Acute Gastroenteritis (AGE) is caused by vibrio cholerae bacteria. It is usually transmitted by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water
The signs and symptoms of cholera are: sudden onset of frequent painless watery stools, vomiting, and rapid dehydration (e.g. sunken eyeballs, wrinkled and dry skin).
Cholera is a rapidly fatal disease. A healthy individual may die within two to three days if no treatment is provided. (LCMY/Sunnex)
