SOUTHERN Leyte’s capital, Maasin City, has declared the reported chikungunya outbreak with 548 suspected cases as manageable, a city health official reported on Tuesday, October 11.
City Health Officer Francilisa Tan said the reported rise of mosquito-borne disease was only based on house-to-house survey done by nurses of the provincial health office in Ibarra, Maria Clara, and Pasay villages.
“We have not officially declared an outbreak since the nurses conducted the interview weeks or a month after the patients manifested the symptoms. All cases are suspected since we have no means to confirm that in our level. There’s possibility that those cases are not chikungunya,” said Tan in a mobile phone interview.
The youngest victim is a nine-month-old infant, while the eldest is 85 years old, according to the City Health Office report.
Local health surveillance officers sent urine samples to Manila of two pregnant women suffering the viral disease to find out if they are positive of Zika virus.
Citing a separate report, Tan said that 122 suspected Chikungunya patients from the three affected villages had sought consultation at the City Health Office in the last three months.
Tan believed the suspected cases have spread in these three areas considering their proximity to Ichon village in nearby Macrohon town, where cases were noted early of July.
Chikungunya is characterized by an abrupt onset of fever frequently accompanied by joint pain. Other common signs and symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash.
The virus is transmitted from human to human by bites of infected female mosquitoes that transmit dengue and Zika. Chikungunya, however, is not as deadly as other mosquito-borne diseases.
The local government has launched a massive information drive aimed at reducing the number of natural and artificial water-filled container habitats that support breeding of mosquitoes. (PNA)