Diarrhea warning up in city
The alarm has been sounded for a possible diarrhea epidemic by the Dagupan City Health Office after 88 Dagupeños have been recorded as afflicted, 22 of whom have been hospitalized.
Water testing conducted by government centers in 126 areas in 31 barangays showed the presence of e.coli in 12 barangays.
Dr. Leonard Carbonell, city health officer, said his office has observed the sudden rise of diarrhea cases and acute gastro enteritis since May 17 when Typhoon Cosme hit the province.
Two-thirds of those afflicted are children, Carbonnell said, adding that the exact coverage of the contamination is still being evaluated.
“We’re clustering the cases,” he said.
The city health office is working in coordination with the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health.
The testing areas include the water pipeline distribution system of the Dagupan City Water District (DCWD), deep wells with more than 100 feet depth as well as water refilling stations.
“E.coli is a normal bacteria that you find in intestines. If you find it in the water, it is possibly contaminated by fecal material. And if there is fecal material, the possibility of the presence of other pathogenic microorganisms like those that cause cholera, typhoid fever, amoebiasis, dysenteria, may also be present,” he pointed out.
He said the incident could be a post-typhoon disease or because there are still lots of households that have no power supply up to now resulting in easy food contamination or proper food preparation is not observed.
“The DCWD formed the Task Force on Chlorine Injection to repeatedly flush water and inject chlorine every two to three days to ensure that their water is potable,” he said.
Nonetheless, the City Health Office continues to do its daily water testing independent of DCWD’s testing to ensure safe drinking water for the people.#
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