Dysentery outbreak in Bongo Island

COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- Health authorities are  trying to prevent the further outbreak of dysentery cases  in an island five kilometers off Maguindanao where more than 40 people fell ill the past three days after drinking water from wells made murky by last week’s heavy rains.

Physician Kadil Sinolinding Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Health in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said epidemiologists are trying to determine the cause of the   outbreak in Bongo island in Parang town.

More than 20 residents of a fishing village in Tuka Marur in the eastern part of Bongo were taken  Wednesday to the Cotabato Regional Medical Center due to painful abdominal spasms and loose bowel movement.

Local officials have confirmed that an afflicted three-year-old child, Bedoria Mama, succumbed due to severe dehydration.

Parang Mayor Ibrahim Ibay, chairman of the municipal disaster risk management and mitigation council, said they are still validating a report that an old woman also died of the disease.

Ibay said barangay officials suspect that last week’s heavy downpours could have contaminated the wells along beaches in Bongo where local folks get water for cooking and drinking.

“The rains that fell must have carried contaminants from high grounds down to the wells,” Ibay told reporters.

Sinolinding said stool samples from the victims have been submitted for laboratory evaluation to determine if they were afflicted with Cholera.

In a text message, Sinolinding told reporters he has ordered the regional health office to immediately release medicines and rehydration fluids to the local government of Parang for the treatment of the patients. - John Unson