Phillipines: Typhoid Outbreaks

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.tempo.com.ph/news.php?aid=38333

Typhoid kills 3, downs 13 in Albay


LEGAZPI CITY ? Health officials in Albay said yesterday that three people had been killed and 13 others needed hospitalization in the latest suspected outbreak of typhoid infection in the island villages of Rapu-Rapu town.

Dr. Luis Mendoza, Albay provincial health officer, said all of said patients were brought to the Rapu-Rapu District Hospital complaining of clear symptoms and signs of typhoid fever which are moderate to severe fever, headache and diarrhea, for at least a week.

Proclaimed dead in said hospital for typhoid infection were Amalia Austero; her sister Salvacion Austero and their newborn sibling Jose, who was delivered prematurely.

The others who were confined to the district hospital were identified as Analyn, 15; Abegail, 12; Angela, 10, Alyssa, 8; Adelyn, 7; Emil John, 4; and Edmon, 2 all members of the Austero family.

The others were Rodel Barcelon, 23; Wenifredo Barrameda, 48; Lorenz Mendenilla, 1; Evely Bonto, 45; Armando Raquion, 48 and Dolores Bonto all residents of Purok 6, Sitio Guinanayan, Barangay Galicia, Rapu-Rapu town.

Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda directed the provincial health office to dispatch a team of epidemiologists to closely check on the reported typhoid outbreak and institute immediate medical measures to stop the spread of said disease in neighboring villages.

Mendoza said initial health reports indicate that the water source in Purok Guinanayand, Barangay Galicia, Rapu- Rapu town was taken from an open well using a crude concrete filtering box and other potable water sources open shallow wells. (Ed de Leon)

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Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=119633
Typhoid fever kills one in Leyte

The Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed one death in a possible typhoid fever outbreak in Matag-ob town in Leyte province.

Health units in the province had also recorded the cases of 40 people who had been experiencing on and off fever for the past several days.

The DOH has confirmed that contaminated water in the town was the reason for the cases of fever. The department has sent chlorine to treat the contaminated water.

Health authorities said the typhoid outbreak in the town has been controlled.

However, in Bato town, health authorities noted an increase in number of cases of cholera. From 81, it was increased by 19 more cases.

"An outbreak might happen if health authorities will not intensify the campaign against this disease. What we need here is to inform everyone about food sanitation and hygiene," said DOH regional sentinel nurse Boyd Cerro.

Meanwhile, four families has been reported affected with typhoid in Nula-Tula, Tacloban City.

The city health office, however, has yet to confirm the cases. Medicines and chlorine for water treatment have been brought to the affected barangay.

"They are still isolated cases but still we are sending aid to the patients," said Dr. Jaime Opinion, city health officer. Melanie Bingco, ABS-CBN Tacloban

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Phillipines: Typhoid Outbreaks

Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/99524/Typhoid-fever-downs-20-people-in-Southern-Leyte-village

Typhoid fever downs 20 people in Southern Leyte village
06/06/2008 | 12:23 AM


MAASIN CITY, Philippines ? Typhoid fever has downed at least 20 people in an upland village in this city, the city health office reported Thursday.

Francilisa Tan, city health officer, said the outbreak might have been caused by contaminated water and poor sanitation in Barangay Guadalupe, about 15 kilometers away from the city proper.

"We have declared an outbreak considering that there was no single case in the past but the number of victims in a small village rose to an alarming level in just two weeks," Ms. Tan said.

The community sources its drinking water from an open deep well.

"The water source is suspicious. It was not chlorinated. Maybe there were dead animals or insects in the well. Sometimes they collect rain water and they just drink it," Ms. Tan told BusinessWorld.

The absence of toilets in many households in the upland village could also be blamed for the outbreak.

The first typhoid case was reported to the city health office in the second week of May. Majority of those affected were schoolchildren with ages ranging from nine to 15. Ms. Tan said the city government distributed medicines to contain the outbreak and prevent deaths.

She added they have launched a massive information campaign in the village and in other nearby communities. ? Sarwell Q. Meniano, BusinessWorld

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Phillipines: Typhoid Outbreaks

Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/103814/Typhoid-fever-outbreak-in-E-Visayas-alarming

Typhoid fever outbreak in E. Visayas alarming
06/28/2008 | 03:10 AM

PINABACDAO, Samar, Philippines ? A typhoid fever outbreak has killed a 14-year-old girl and downed 43 others in a village in Villareal, Samar this month.

Teogenes Baluma, regional director of Department of Health in Eastern Visayas, said the outbreak is alarming considering the number of patients within a short span.

The outbreak occurred after similar outbreaks that downed 48 people in the town of Abuyog in Leyte and 25 others in San Miguel village, Hernani, Eastern Samar.

In May, another outbreak was declared in an upland village of Guadalupe in Maasin City, Southern Leyte with 20 victims.

Mr. Baluma said water borne diseases are expected because of the frequent rain in the region this year.

In Villareal town, the disease spread easily because there is no doctor in the community, he added. The lone fatality, who was not identified for being a minor, succumbed to the disease on June 6. At least six victims were sent to hospitals in Catbalogan City and in Tacloban City.

"The town has no doctor for the past several months now. There?s only one nurse in the local area tasked to check health problems," Mr. Baluma told reporters. A health team rushed this week to Barangay Igot, about three kilometers from the Villareal town center, to contain the outbreak.

Shallow well pumps are the major source of drinking water for the residents of affected barangays. Health officials suspect that rainwater has contaminated the wells.

"There?s also a problem on sanitation in the area. Toilets are located close to shallow wells," said Boyd Cerro, DOH regional sentinel nurse in a telephone interview.

Mr. Cerro, who went to Villareal this week, said/B] the outbreak was not immediately reported to authorities because the residents thought it was ordinary fever.[/B]

Samar 2nd district Rep. Sharee Ann Tan said that with the outbreak, she will allocate more funds for water system improvement.

"Safe drinking water has been a problem in many areas of Samar province. I always earmark a budget for health sanitation to address this concern," Ms. Tan said. ? S. Q. Meniano, BusinessWorld

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Phillipines: Typhoid Outbreaks

Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/default.asp?m=12&r=&y=&mo=&fi=p080701.htm&no=17

PIA Press Release
2008/07/01

One Samareno dead from typhoid fever, two others from dengue

Catbalogan City (1 July) -- Cases of typhoid fever in Barangay Igot, Villareal, and dengue cases in Barangay Buenavista, Daram, all of Samar province, have made the provincial health office and the Department of Health (DOH) representatives extremely busy and the populace scared.

In a report filed by DOH Provincial Representative Dr. Antonio Tirazona, it mentioned that in Igot, Villareal, there are some 69 cases and one mortality.

The report further mentioned that the suspected source is the barangay's shallow well which is the main water source of this barangay with some 1,200 population.

Despite the absence of their Municipal Health Officer, the RHU dispatched a team to conduct an investigation and at the same time, the team conducted a barangay assembly where they discussed the ways to abort the outbreak.

The team also sought the assistance of Mayor Reynato La Torre for medicines.

The mortality was identified as Imie Ledoblado, 14.

Meanwhile, in the island town of Daram, another 40 cases of dengue was reported by DOH Rep. Anna Lissa Babon.

Babon said that two of those afflicted have died though she failed to identify them.

She narrated that the first mortality, a 14-year old male was said to have come from Pier Dos in Catbalogan City.

After his death, cases of dengue were spotted in the adjacent houses where the young male lived, including another death.

The barangay council and the Mayor's office initiated 'operation linis' to prevent the worsening of the situation.

Babon said that although only four have been admitted to the Samar Provincial Hospital, most cases are treated with home care using Oral Replacement Solution.

Although ruled by a medical doctor as Mayor, Daram is one of those municipalities without a municipal health officer.

Health authorities have repeatedly appealed to the barangays to adopt hygiene and health seeking behavior to combat any form of ailment.

Just early this year cases of typhoid fever hit a Zumarraga barangay and DOH Central office made interventions.

Sanitation practice of most Samarenos still fail to get the approval of most health authorities. (PIA-Samar)

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Phillipines: Typhoid Outbreaks

Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&fi=p080711.htm&no=35

DOH announces containment of typhoid fever outbreak in Ibajay town

Iloilo City (11 July) -- The Department of Health and the Local Government of Ibajay, Aklan were on top of the situation in containing the impending typhoid outbreak.

DOH 6 Director Lydia Ramos said that an occurrence of 38 typhoid cases reached her office and, immediately the DOH 6 team "led in overseeing the preventive operations in that area together with the hospital of Ibajay as well with its Rural Health Unit.

Director Ramos cited the two sanitary engineers from DOH-Manila who augmented the preventive operations, and the all out support of Mayor Lourdes Miraflores of Ibajay town.

"We went to the different barangays of Ibajay, collected water samples and it was found out that all the water sources are contaminated with coliform," Ramos said.

She said that the residents were advised that water must be treated with chlorine or boiled before drinking, and "we believe that the people followed the advisory because on the third day since the day of the typhoid case was reported, it was observed that the no of cases dropped, and no additional cases were reported to date".

Director Ramos emphasized that the health intervention is now focused on water, sanitation and hygiene and vector control for dengue and liptospirosis.

The DOH 6 Director also disclosed during the media interview that for Iloilo province, the PCSO through Health Secretary Francisco Duque gave an assistance of P3 million for medicines, and for Iloilo City especially for La Paz rehabilitation and for medicines- P1 million; and P750,000.00 for the relief operations of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council. (PIA/T. Villavert)

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Phillipines: Typhoid Outbreaks

AFP sends medical team to help fight Romblon typhoid woes

07/12/2008 | 12:27 PM

MANILA, Philippines - The military on Saturday sent a 14-man team of military medical team to a village in Romblon, where a number of residents were stricken with typhoid and dengue fever for the past days.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Alexander Yano personally sent off the doctors at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City where they boarded a military Focker plane on their way to the province, said AFP public affairs chief Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres.

Torres said Yano sent the mission in response to an appeal by officials of Romblon for medical support.

The team is composed of seven doctors (a pathologist, a pediatrician, a urologist, an oncologist and general practitioners), three nurses and four aidmen from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which is complemented by three reservists of the Philippine National Police (PNP) from Southern Luzon.

The AFP group is headed by Maj. Rovelyn Bambao and the PNP group is under Supt. Bulaclac Resurreccion.

Health officials earlier said the disease outbreak could have been caused by a contamination in the water reservoir of Capaclan village in Romblon town of Romblon province.

Local officials have said typhoid and dengue "affected" as many as 350 of 700 students from the Romblon East Central School.

Torres said an average of 12 patients have been seeking assistance for typhoid fever for the past days, adding that local officials have already recorded a death. He could not categorically say exactly since when the figures were recorded. - GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106589/AFP-sends-medical-team-to-help-fight-Romblon-typhoid-wo

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Phillipines: Typhoid Outbreaks

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr> <td height="2" width="100%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="10" width="100%"> Sunday, August 03, 2008
</td> </tr> <tr> <td height="10" width="100%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="10" width="100%"> Filipinos? access to clean, sufficient
water must be improved nationwide<o></o>
</td> </tr> <tr> <td height="10" width="100%"> By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Reporter<o> </o>
Access to clean and adequate water is a basic human right, but remains an acute seasonal problem in urban and coastal areas in the Philippines.<o></o>
The Health Policy Note on water released by the Department of Health in April, revealed that 83 percent of households had access to safe water in 2006, only percent away from the target for 2010. <o> </o>
On the other hand, the percentage of households with access to sanitation was only 75 percent, 16 percent lower than the 91 percent target for 2010. <o> </o>
Improvements have been slow and inconsistent, with very little growth in building access to safe water and even less in building sanitation facilities. This is aggravated buy high population growth.<o> </o>
Pockets of low access to safe water and sanitation persist. Several areas in the country have chalked up persistently low coverage rates for safe water and sanitary facilities. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is the lowest performing among regions, with only 55 percent access rate to safe water, and 34 percent access to sanitary toilets. It also has the highest reported incidence of water pollution, and sanitation and hygiene-related diseases in the country.<o> </o>
The regions lacking safe water coverage, a basic service, also have higher morbidity rates. The top five regions in terms of acute watery diarrhea, are also the top lowest ranking regions in terms of access to basic water services.<o> </o>
The DOH paper noted variations across income groups. Access to basic sanitation by low-income families is 22 percent lower than that of high income households with access to safe water and sanitary toilets. <o> </o>
Disparity also occurs between rural and urban households. Only 59 percent of rural households have access to basic sanitation, compared with urban households which have 80 percent coverage.<o> </o>
But there is a problem even in areas with access to safe water and sewerage facilities: The quality of service is substandard. Surveys show that one half or more of LGU-operated water systems do not meet drinking water quality standards. This partly explains why four out of seven waterborne disease outbreaks recorded in 2007 to 2008 were caused by the contamination of water from local water districts or LGU-managed water systems, as what happened in Calamba, Laguna, in March.<o> </o>
Typhoid broke out in the town, despite its relatively high coverage of safe water (93 percent) and sanitary toilets (88 percent). The typhoid eruption caused a state of calamity. There were 2,562 cases, with two deaths. Direct costs alone for drugs and financial assistance from the national government amounted to P1.9 million.<o> </o>
Household and industrial waste should be stored in correctly built septic tanks to prevent contaminating waterways. However, less than 1 percent of septic tanks in the Philippines are known to undergo regular desludging and the appropriate treatment.<o> </o>
The study noted that access to safe water is hampered by lack of financing and regulatory and operational gaps. There is inadequate investment in safe water and sewerage services due to high cost of capital investment and operations in water and sanitation, on top of other factors like low tariffs, low user fees, and poor revenue generation, based on studies made by the Asian Development Bank in 2007.<o> </o>
To create more access to water and sanitation services and facilities, the government should strengthen its role as regulator, enforcing minimum standards with penalties and incentives, and ensuring that privatization will not exacerbate access problems. <o> </o>
The country has a Clean Water Act whose provisions need to be implemented. <o> </o>
Incentives should be given to establishments that put up industrial wastewater treatment facilities, adopt water pollution control technology, use cleaner production system and observe waste minimization standards. <o> </o>
Besides reviewing mandates and ensure collaboration of water-related stakeholders like the national and local governments, private business and civil society, financing strategies and arrangements have to be developed to give the people more access to water and sanitation services.<o> </o>
The Department of Health paper also suggested that the private sector be tapped to make water and sanitation investments, and that the government invest in services and facilities for the poor when there is no private sector response To ensure financing for water and sanitation projects, the government may create a ?water and sanitation fund? designed to fast track building access to safe water and sanitation in needy areas. <o> </o>
In more developed areas where poor communities are found, specific financing arrangements between the government and private concessionaires need to be negotiated to promote access.<o> </o>
Concerned agencies need to clarify their roles and collaborate with each other and support systems. Stakeholder roles and responsibilities need to be well-delineated, and appropriate performance benchmarks need to be specified. Oversight functions and mechanisms also need to be defined.

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/aug/03/yehey/top_stories/20080803top3.html

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