COTABATO CITY — Three Moro villagers, one of them a two-year-old child died, while 21 others were hospitalized due to a diarrhea outbreak in a secluded riverside area in Talayan town in Maguindanao del Sur.
Physician Mohammad Ariff Baguindali, chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office-Maguindanao del Sur, on Wednesday said that they have collected samples of drinking water from sources along a river in Barangay Tamar in Talayan, where the victims reside, for laboratory examination.
Baguindali said the three fatalities, a 24-month-old child, an adolescent and an adult, were immediately buried in keeping with Islamic tradition of burying the dead within 24 hours from time of death.
He said that they can only determine the exact cause of the diarrhea outbreak after the testing for contaminants of the water samples taken from the affected village are done completely.
“The river there is unsafe. It is like a catchment spot for flood waters from around. Farmers wash their manual pesticide sprayers and bathe the draft animals that they use in plowing their corn and rice fields there,” Baguindali said.
Personnel of the IPHO-Maguindanao del Sur and the Talayan Municipal Health Office are cooperating in preventing water-borne diseases.
“We are to intensify our information campaign aiming to educate barangay folks on how to avoid infections unsafe drinking water can cause,” Baguindali said.