ALMOST a week after the local government declared a state of health emergency in San Carlos City, the Department of Health (DOH) is sending a team of epidemiologists to Negros Occidental to verify the reported outbreak in amebiasis cases.
In a press conference, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH-Epidemiology Bureau is deploying a team to help their regional health office in verifying the surging number of amebiasis cases in San Carlos City.
“We are sending a team here from the Epidemiology Bureau to go to Region 6 to help our Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit to verify this event,” said Vergeire.
She said the deployment is part of the national government’s efforts to confirm if the situation warrants such a declaration from the local government unit (LGU).
“We have a policy that states that the LGU has to go through the DOH to seek guidance and for us to verify the event before they can declare a state of calamity or emergency,” she explained.
“All LGUs have to comply with these policies since this is based on law. We are just verifying the cases right now,” added Vergeire.
She noted that based on their initial data, only 60 percent of the 189 reported cases have been confirmed as amebiasis.
“Cases started going up this February in San Carlos City. They currently have 189 cases.
The previous year, they had zero cases of amebiasis,” she said.
“They have 189 cases today, but those found positive for amebiasis are around 60 percent only. Others tested negative or positive for e. coli or other organisms based on tests done,” she added.
Last week, San Carlos City Mayor Renato Gustilo issued an executive order declaring a state of health emergency in the area due to the increasing number of reported amebiasis cases.
Amebiasis is an infection of the intestines caused by a parasitic amoeba, and its symptoms are diarrhea (loose stool/poop), nausea (a feeling of sickness in the stomach) and weight loss.
Vergeire said amebiasis is usually transmitted via a contaminated source of water supply.
She said this explains why they have begun discussions with other concerned government agencies, such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), regarding the source of water supply in the city.
“To the communities, it is better to boil your drinking water if you are not sure if your water supply is clean and safe,” Vergeire said.
She said they have also activated their local health units in the area to help attend to suspected cases of amoebiasis
