Diarrheal cases at Eastern Samar caused by heavy rains

By MARIVIC ALCOBER (PIA Eastern Samar)
February 29, 2008

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  –  For the past few days Eastern Visayas, most especially Eastern Samar has been suffering continuous heavy rains which resulted to flooding incidents that caused to diarrheal cases in some of the municipalities in said area.

It was learned from the Department of Health - Eastern Visayas (DOH-EV), that diarrheal cases in Eastern Samar which was badly hit by the flooding, have already reached a total of 178.

To accommodate affected families due to the flooding incidents, Evacuation Sites have been set up in Dolores, Borongan, Maslog, Jipapad, Balangkayan, Maydolong, and Gen. MacArthur.  Said Evacuation Sites were able to accommodate some 363 families. 

Center for Health and Development (CHD) Operations Center was activated and served the affected families 24 hours daily.  Likewise, there was continuous coordination with the Department of Health Representative of the affected municipalities of Eastern Samar, the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, and with the Provincial Health Office.  The CHD Response Team gave technical support to the Local Government Unit in matters of health emergency management and disease surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases.

The DOH-EV extended logistic support to the province of Eastern Samar through the Provincial Health Office (PHO) and the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council of Guiuan and Dolores, in the form of drugs, medicines and medical supplies, in the total amount of P152,400.

It was anticipated that the massive rainfall which flooded the drinking water sources which are mostly open dug wells and springs is one of the causes of the increase of disease incidence, specifically acute respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases. 

Water treatment was conducted in the affected communities by the local health workers, while disease surveillance was continuously done.  It was learned from DOH that CHD8 provided chlorine granules and water treatment tablets and these were distributed to the affected municipalities by the PHO and the MHOs.

It was also bared that schistosomiasis infested areas has been flooded and because of this, larval production is expected to increase, hence, intensive treatment through conduct of massive treatment has been carried out in infested areas that were flooded.  Relative to this, praziquantel tablets has been provided by CHD8.