EDITORIAL - Leptospirosis threat

Floods can paralyze communities, destroy crops and property and cause death. But across the country, they also provide fun. During torrential downpours, children are often seen frolicking in floodwaters.

This behavior is now seen as one of the factors in the spike of leptospirosis cases. Since the onslaught of heavy rains and torrential flooding spawned by Typhoon Carina and enhanced by the southwest monsoon, hospitals have reported a surge in leptospirosis cases.

In recent days, the National Kidney and Transplant Institute and San Lazaro Hospital reported that their emergency wards were full. NKTI had to convert its gymnasium into a ward to accommodate the influx of patients with inflamed kidneys that might need dialysis. Health officials have stressed that dialysis is provided in other government hospitals.

Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted between animals and humans. It is most commonly spread through the urine of infected animals particularly rodents, dogs and farm animals. Leptospirosis is characterized by severe chills, flu-like body aches, acute diarrhea and strong headaches. In its late stages, it can include meningitis, pulmonary hemorrhage and respiratory and renal failure. It can kill quickly if not properly treated, which is a problem since the symptoms can be mistaken for dengue and other hemorrhagic fevers.

Apart from children having fun swimming in floods, many communities now suffer from flooding that takes a long time to recede. In such areas, people are often forced to wade in floodwaters without protective items such as boots. Such stagnant water raises the risk not only of leptospirosis infection, but also of providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus.

This makes it more urgent to implement better flood control infrastructure and waste management. If floods cannot be prevented, they should at least be able to recede as quickly as possible.

There’s another factor that must be addressed if the government wants to discourage swimming in floods. Children do this because of the lack of public playgrounds with pools. They frolic in heavy rain because they have no showers or even modern bathrooms in their homes or in communal outhouses. These problems are related to poverty and underdevelopment and cannot be easily addressed.

Department of Health officials said they would encourage local government units to ban swimming in floods. While this is a good idea, the ban may prove difficult to enforce in many areas. The best that the government can do is to increase public awareness of leptospirosis and how to avoid the disease, and to boost the capability of public hospitals to treat those who get infected.