15/01/2024
𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗛𝗘𝗔 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞 𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥; 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗭𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗖𝗔𝗨𝗦𝗘, 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘
City health authorities announced that the critical period of the diarrhea outbreak has passed and that the city government is now zeroing in on the pathogens that had caused the illness as well as the source and circumstances of the contamination.
In a report to Mayor Benjamin Magalong, City Health Officer Celia Flor Brillantes said the downward trend of the epidemic curve was sustained as the number of new cases continued to dwindle beginning last Jan. 9.
From as high as 520 cases on Jan. 8, cases dramatically decreased to just 14 on Jan. 14.
There were no fatalities and majority of the cases had either recovered or on their way to recovery.
During the Ugnayang Panlungsod press briefing on Jan. 14, Mayor Magalong said investigations and clinical analyses will be continued to ascertain the cause and source of the infection and only then can they say that the outbreak has ended.
"Looking at the trend and the developments, we can say that we are getting there," the mayor said.
Local health authorities told the media that virology tests conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on stool specimens collected from ten hospital patients yielded positive results for either norovirus and sapovirus.
However, the City Health Services Office and the Dept. of Health Epidemiology Bureau said the results remain inconclusive as more tests and specimens are needed to determine the exact pathogen that caused the widespread illness.
The CHSO's public health laboratory conducted microbial analyses of 64 samples from water sources and found ten that were positive for E.coli bacteria while the Baguio Water District which also conducted water sampling of its water sources reported that all of the 83 samples gathered from its deepwells tested negative for the bacteria.
Results of parallel tests by the RITM on said water samples from the BWD sources as well as the bacteriological examinations of the stools will be released soon to aid in the investigation.
Pending the results, the city expanded its health measures to address the possibility that the cause may be viral. The precautionary measures now include frequent handwashing and other minimum public health standards adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic apart from consuming only purified or boiled water.
Norovirus is known to cause diarrhea and vomiting while sapovirus is a "common cause of viral gastroenteritis predominantly affecting children less than 5 years of age."
A norovirus outbreak is said to be common among countries experiencing cold weather and in fact is currently underway in the U.S. and Canada.
Dr. Ian Christian Gonzales of the DOH EB spelled out the general preventive measures to be observed regardless of what pathogen caused the infection:
*Since the outbreak is likely due to contaminated water, use treated (chlorinated, purified or distilled) for both drinking and cooking
*Practice good hand hygiene by washing hands before and after eating, using the toilet or when caring for the sick
*When caring for the sick, be careful in cleaning up f***l materials, vomit and make sure to disinfect contaminated surfaces using common disinfectants
*If feeling sick and still having symptoms, rest and stay at home and avoid preparing food to prevent infecting others. - Aileen P. Refuerzo
