Thousands in P'sinan suffer from gastroenteritis

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The provincial government has intensified its surveillance for quick response activities to arrest the problem in the community level for water-borne diseases after 6,350 acute gastroenteritis cases have been reported in Pangasinan, with 57 found positive of cholera with one death.

In a press briefing Wednesday, Rafael Baraan, provincial administrator said most of these cases belong to households using shallow tube wells as their source of drinking water and they are in places where households are not using sanitary toilets.

For the past eight months, among the AGE cases in the province, Dagupan City recorded the highest number of afflicted persons with 621, followed by San Carlos City with 565, Alaminos City with 418, Bolinao with 348, Bayambang with 333 and Mangatarem with 330.

Of the 6,350 cases, 57 were found to be cholera cases. Sixteen are from Bayambang with one death mostly in Barangay Tococ, 15 in barangay Baybay, Aguilar town and 11 in different places in Bolinao.

These are flood-prone areas and the team is trying to find factors that serve as conducive to the breeding of cholera bacteria, Baraan said.

There were also one each of cholera cases in San Carlos City, Mangatarem, Sta. Barbara, Calasiao, Sual, San Fabian, Anda and Agno. Two cases each were from Alaminos City and Bani and another three in Dagupan City.

“We’re assuring everything is under control and that our regional and provincial health offices’ joint quick response team is on top of the situation,” Baraan said.

He said based on reports by the team, most of the cases happened in August afflicting mostly children.

Baraan allayed fears of Pangasinen­ses that there could be a repeat of the 2004 incident where there were more than 10,000 confirmed cholera cases that caused provincewide alarm.

Dr. Jackson Soriano, officer-in-charge and provincial health officer, said in the briefing that during rainy season, there is a high incidence of AGE that results in diarrhea and dehydration, if not immediately acted upon.

Because of the intensified surveillance effort, Soriano said they were able to find out cholera cases during random sampling for rectal swab among those afflicted where the organism found in the laboratory analysis was vibrio cholerae.

Cholera causes more complications, higher morbidity and greater mortality, Soriano said, but added, this year’s cases should not cause undue alarm as everything is done to arrest the problem.