Diarrhea watch on in Dagupan City

DAGUPAN CITY –The city health office has raised a diarrhea watch after 88 Dagupeños were afflicted by the disease, 22 of them hospitalized since last week. Water samples from 12 barangays tested positive for E. coli bacteria.

Dr. Leonard Carbonell, city health officer, told The STAR yesterday that there has been a sudden rise of cases of diarrhea and acute gastroenteritis, two-thirds of them involving children, since typhoon “Cosme” heavily battered the province.

“What we’re looking at is clustering of cases. Did it happen in one or two barangays?” he said.

He said they have been conducting water testing and chlorination and have alerted the different barangays and hospitals in coordination with the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health.

He said water samples were taken from 126 sites, including the water pipeline distribution system of the Dagupan City Water District (DCWD), deep wells with depth of more than 100 feet and water refilling stations, in 31 barangays and those from 12 barangays showed the presence of E. coli bacteria.

“E. coli is a normal bacteria that you find in intestines. The point is, if you find it in water, it means (the water) is possibly contaminated by fecal material,” Carbonell said.

“Worse is, if there is fecal material, other pathogenic microorganisms like the ones causing cholera, typhoid fever, amoebiasis and dysenteria may also be present,” he added.

Carbonell said several households still have no electricity as a result of the typhoon, resulting in easy food contamination or improper food preparation.

“Fortunately, the DCWD has very good response after we coordinated with them and presented the results,” he said.

The DCWD formed a task force to repeatedly flush water and inject chlorine every two to three days to ensure that the water it distributes is potable, he added.

Carbonell said his office though continues to test water samples every day and give oral rehydration treatment to those afflicted by diarrhea.