Malaria claims lives of Vizcaya triplets

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — It is said that death knows no age or social status, but the demise of the Calinsaan quadruplets in Manila recently and that of the Aymoyo triplets in a remote mountain town here last month has shown once again that the poor often become helpless victims even if it can be prevented.

Despite the Department of Health’s information campaign about mosquito-borne diseases during the rainy season, malaria has claimed the lives of the week-old triplets in far-flung Sitio Gabong in Barangay Pelaway, one of the villages that had the highest number of malaria cases in an ongoing outbreak in the province.

The disease has also killed a day-old infant, three two-year-old toddlers, a three-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man in Barangay Lipuga, also in Alfonso Castañeda town.

According to a report from the local health office, malaria has already killed 14 people — including the triplets — in Pelaway, Lipuga and in Barangays Cawayan, Lipuga and Abuyo, all in Alfonso Castañeda, and in Barangays Talbec and Abaca in Dupax del Norte town.

More than 300 others were also afflicted, the report added.

Health authorities, however, could not ascertain if the triplets, indeed, died of malaria although they showed symptoms of the disease before their deaths.

The information sheet provided by the municipal health office in Alfonso Castañeda stated that the infants suffered fever, colds and diarrhea at the height of the malaria outbreak.

Meanwhile, Dr. Antonio Parong, provincial health action officer, said the malaria outbreak has slowed down following a series of medical treatment and other preventive measures that included house-to-house spraying of insecticides.

Parong said the outbreak is now under control. Mosquito-breeding sites, he added, were already destroyed by chemicals.

However, in adjacent upland Nagtipunan town in Quirino province, the malaria alert has reportedly been heightened after the deaths of two villagers there.

Last week, Nagtipunan Mayor Rosario Camma said malaria has already killed five people and affected more than 100 others in her town.