FOUR weeks before his wedding, a 36-year-old man died due to complications from diarrhea.
He is the fifth recorded death of the diarrhea outbreak that has affected Toril District and other south areas of Davao City.
City Health Office (CHO) Head, Dr. Ashley Lopez said in an interview with SunStar Davao that the patient, who recently died, was about to get married on August 20.
“Ni-attend pa siya og murag premarital counseling kauban iyahang [wife to be], sya lang nikaon [sa street night market on July 14] (He attended a premarital counseling with his fiance. He is the only one who ate something at the night market on July 14),” Lopez said.
Lopez said the patient had reported feeling the symptoms on July 15 but opted to self-medicate for four days. His condition worsened on the sixth day, July 22.
The four previous deaths recorded were a 10-year-old boy who died due to severe dehydration, a 67-year-old female who died due to complications from diarrhea, a 32-year-old male teacher from Surigao who died due to acute renal failure which was attributed to dehydration, after his 24-hour admission to the Southern Philippines Medical Center and the 23-year-old male, a swabber of the CHO.
On July 22, the patient was still able to attend some of the wedding preparations with his fiancee. However, Lopez said at 5 p.m., the patient was rushed to St.John Hospital. However, due to unavailability of a bed, he was transferred to Adventist Hospital Davao City but was declared dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, Lopez said during the regular session of the 20th Davao City Council on July 26 that total cases have increased to 266 cases. Following the recovery of 84 cases, active cases have decreased to 177. KSD