Flood victims may get free treatment in gov't hospitals

MANILA, Philippines - Flood victims in the evacuation centers can avail themselves of free treatment in all government hospitals and healthcare facilities in Metro Manila, the Department of Health (DOH) announced yesterday.

“We are encouraging the people in evacuation centers to bring immediately those who are in need of medical treatment to the nearest government hospital in their area for proper treatment and care,” said Eduardo Janairo, the DOH director for National Capital Region (NCR).

Janairo said the expenses will be shouldered by the DOH through its “Kalusugang Pang-kalahatan” program.

To ensure that legitimate evacuees will avail of the free medical services, there will be list of those in the evacuation centers, Janairo said.

“Let us not be complacent, if someone has a fever, seek medical help as soon as possible so that proper medicine will be provided and the illness will not be spread among other evacuees. Because of overcrowding in some evacuation centers, transmission of diseases is likely to occur if not prevented immediately,” he added.

Various medicine like paracetamol, amoxicillin, cotrimoxazole, lagundi, sambong and doxycycline capsules for leptospirosis will also be provided to qualified patients.

For pregnant women and children below eight years old, ampicillin capsule with 500mg dosage will be given instead of doxycycline capsule.

“Let us help prevent the spread of diseases and avert possible transmissions. Seek early consultation and treatment. Prevention is still the best cure,” Janairo stressed.

To prevent possible outbreaks of leptospirosis among the flood victims, the DOH-NCR had also given doxycycline prophylaxis to all local government units in Metro Manila for distribution in the evacuation centers.

This developed as the state-run Ospital ng Maynila said yesterday a patient died of leptospirosis.

Ospital director Evangeline Morales said the patient was a security guard of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and a resident of Tondo, Manila.

Morales refused to reveal the identity of the patient but said the man was rushed to the hospital last Saturday.

Since Saturday, there have been five confirmed cases of leptospirosis at the hospital, three brought in at the height of the heavy monsoon that flooded most of Metro Manila.

There were also eight cases of dengue, five of them admitted last night.

From Aug. 6 to 7, at least 259 patients were already admitted to the hospital since it was placed under code red alert.

Janairo, on the other hand, said health workers and those involved in rescue and relief missions including the military and police personnel are priorities for the antibiotic to protect them against the water-borne illness.

“We have to avert the possible increase of leptospirosis cases not only in evacuation centers but also to flooded communities in NCR. Because we cannot prevent people from wading in flood waters, we are providing prophylaxis for them so that they will not be affected by leptospirosis,” he said. – With Rey Galupo