EDITORIAL — The season for new concerns

With the rain comes relief from the heat that has dominated most of our lives for the past few months, but with it also comes a slew of illnesses many of us might not be ready for.

According to the Department of Health, the threat of dengue, cholera, and leptospirosis comes with the arrival of the rainy season.

Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said dengue becomes common after rainwater builds up and stagnates in various containers left unattended, while cholera and leptospirosis are common water-borne diseases.

Indeed, our focus for the past months was on the heat. It affected all aspects of our life from the hours students studied, the times people could stay on the street, and what activities could and couldn’t be done, among others. There was little thought given to rain which was also absent from the skies.

But now we are in the rainy season again and just like that we should shift caution from one thing to another. It’s the season for new concerns.

According to Herbosa, it would help to clean our surroundings. As he explained; rainwater collecting in unattended containers becomes the breeding places of mosquitoes carrying dengue, while garbage and rubbish piles attract rats, whose feces and urine may have leptospirosis. Cholera is usually the result when human or animal waste is improperly disposed of.

We should abide by his words. We don’t exactly have a culture when it comes to cleanliness. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: we have this culture of uncleanliness. While we Filipinos are good in terms of personal hygiene, our sense of sanitation isn’t exactly the best, and we are more than content to leave our refuse everywhere even as we take pride in the cleanliness of our own homes and yards.

And this attitude of ours will be our own undoing when the rains fall and the mess we left everywhere will become health hazards.