3 Albay kids die, 40 sick due to red tide poisoning

LEGAZPI CITY – Three children aged three to eight died and at least 40 others were hospitalized due to red tide poisoning in Albay’s third district, health authorities said.

Dr. Luis Mendoza, provincial health officer, identified the three children as cousins Mae Biliones, eight, and Jonalyn Biliones Realco, three, of Barangay Guilid, Ligao City; and Paul Dolz, four, of Barangay Lanigay, Polangui town.

Mendoza said at least 40 others, mostly minors, were admitted on Saturday at the Josefina-Belmonte Duran Hospital in Ligao City and the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital here.

The victims came from Ligao City and the towns of Polangui, Oas and Camalig, all in Albay’s third district. 

“All the victims experienced dizziness, vomiting and numbness in their body parts, which are symptoms of paralytic shellfish poisoning,” Mendoza said in a radio interview.

Reports said the victims ate mussels believed harvested from Sorsogon Bay, where a shellfish ban has been in effect since last year. 

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda has instructed the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office to shoulder the burial expenses of the three dead children and extend free hospitalization to the other victims.

Salceda has also ordered the setting up of police checkpoints to inspect all marine products and confiscate all shellfish entering the province. 

He instructed all rural health units to ban the sale of shellfish in all markets in the province until the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has lifted the ban.

Malacañang ordered Bicol officials, the Department of Health and other concerned agencies yesterday to stockpile medicines and improve their coordinating mechanisms following the red tide poisoning cases.

“When we learned about these (incidents of poisoning Saturday), we saw there is a need to strengthen the communication plans...,” said Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez, who is also the executive director of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

Salceda earlier blamed the BFAR for failing to put up checkpoints to prevent the distribution of contaminated shellfish. – With Celso Amo and Paolo Romero