HEALTH authorities noted a 39 percent increase in typhoid fever cases in Baguio City from January to June this year.
The City Health Services Office (CHSO) monitoring showed that from 188 typhoid fever cases from January to June last year, it has increased to 259 from same period this year.
Typhoid fever according to CHSO chief epidemiologist Dr. Donna Tubera is next to dengue in the list of diseases during the rainy season.
Tubera said typhoid is a food and water-borne disease.
Typhoid fever is characterized by a slow progressive fever, profuse sweating, gastroenteritis, and non-bloody diarrhea.
She said typhoid is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person.
With this, she advised safe and hygienic preparation by food handlers in the city as she ruled out water contamination as its source.
Tubera said since there is no clustering of cases of typhoid in the barangays, unhygienic food preparation has been suspected as its source.
The CHSO is now intensifying efforts by strictly giving sanitation permits to food handlers in carinderias, restaurants and canteens in the city.
In giving licenses to food handlers, Tubera said people who love to eat in food stalls will be assured their food are clean.
She added proper hand washing and cooking of food should be observed by food handlers as food poisoning and not just due to unhealthy food preparation. (JM Agreda)