LEPTOSPIROSIS DEATHS SOAR TO 89
MANILA, OCTOBER 17, 2009 (STAR) By Mayen Jaymalin - The death toll from leptospirosis reached 89 as cases of the flood-borne disease in Metro Manila and flooded provinces rose tenfold in the past three days, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday.Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the number of leptospirosis admissions in public hospitals in Metro Manila alone soared from 140 on Oct. 12 to 1,027 as of Oct. 15.
Duque added that the 89 leptospirosis deaths brought to 8.6 percent the fatality rate from last year’s 7.5 percent.
“Cases of leptospirosis have really shot up these past few days. In fact, the Metro Manila figure even exceeded the 812 nationwide admissions in government hospitals for the whole of last year,” Duque disclosed.
In Rizal province alone, Duque said a total of 54 leptospirosis cases have been recorded since Oct. 1.
“As we start to see in the National Capital Region (NCR), we also expect a lot of cases in the communities in Rizal, which make up the biggest number of barangays still under water at this time,” Duque noted.
He said the DOH has also declared an outbreak of leptospirosis in three Marikina barangays – Tumana, Concepcion and Malanday.
“Although fewer than five cases were recorded in each barangay, we declared an outbreak because those areas had zero incidence of the infection last year,” Duque said.
Based on a DOH estimate, Duque said 1.7 million people are at risk of acquiring leptospirosis since many areas in Metro Manila and CALABARZON are still submerged.
Of the 1.7 million at risk, Duque said, more than 3,000 are likely to manifest symptoms of the potentially fatal infection.
“We expect 3,800 people to get the infection and of this number, 3,040 will suffer uncomplicated symptoms while the rest will manifest complicated symptoms that would require them to undergo dialysis or face eventual death,” Duque said.
To protect the more than a million people currently exposed to leptospirosis, the DOH has embarked on a massive preventive treatment operation and awareness campaign.
Yesterday, Duque said a team from the DOH has already started giving prophylaxis capsules in barangays in Marikina where there is a leptospirosis outbreak.
Duque said the DOH hopes to provide preventive treatment to 1.3 million people from CALABARZON and the NCR who were affected by flood and exposed to possible leptospirosis infection.
“For the next three weeks, we will be giving 100 mg. prophylaxis capsule once a week to those at risk of acquiring the infection,” Duque said, adding the preventive treatment operations would cost the DOH some P12 million.
Duque said the DOH would also allocate P30.4 million for those people who are already infected and manifesting complicated and uncomplicated symptoms of the disease.
Medical experts clarified that the prophylaxis would only protect the people for a week, thus they are encouraged to avoid wading in floodwaters, especially if they have an open wound.
At this time, Duque said all the 19 government-run hospitals in Metro Manila are on standby for admissions of more leptospirosis patients.
“In case the DOH-run hospitals would not be able to accommodate all the patients, we have already an agreement with some private hospitals and local government-operated hospitals to admit the spillovers,” Duque said.
“We are closely monitoring incidence of leptospirosis, which is now the most critical of the diseases affecting the typhoon-affected regions of NCR and CALABARZON,” he added.
Aside from leptospirosis, DOH also recorded high incidence of respiratory tract infection, skin wounds and diarrhea among residents of NCR and CALABARZON.
Duque said the DOH is also closely monitoring areas severely ravaged by typhoon “Pepeng.”
“We are conducting surveillance in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon, but there are no reports of outbreaks of flood-borne diseases,” Duque said.
Meanwhile, DOH regional director Rio Magpantay said Nueva Ecija has the most number of leptospirosis cases among flood-affected provinces in Central Luzon. A total of 55 people in Nueva Ecija contracted leptospirosis and four have already died from the disease.
In Tarlac, 16 cases were noted with one fatality, Bulacan has 12 reported cases with one death and Pampanga has five cases with one casualty. Aurora, on the other hand, has one case and one death reported, Magpantay said.
Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection associated with rat urine that can lead to kidney failure.
But Magpantay explained that the infection could also come from animals like cattle, pigs, horses, dogs and wild animals. Symptoms include fever, a red skin rash and general weakness. Headaches, adverse reaction to light, muscle and joint pains, vomiting and fatigue are also common symptoms.
Malacañang not alarmed
In spite of the rising cases of leptospirosis in the country, Malacañang refused to say that this was alarming and expressed confidence that the concerned authorities would be able to address the situation.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said that the Palace is “concerned but not alarmed” by the reported deaths from leptospirosis.
Remonde said that the President has ordered the DOH to deploy more health workers to flood-affected areas where clustering of leptospirosis cases was reported.
He pointed out that one of the first directives issued by the President after Metro Manila was hit by heavy flooding brought about by storm “Ondoy” was to clean up the streets of garbage as well as the draining of floodwaters.
“This is being done but the problem is really more complicated in some of the areas, so the draining would take some time to complete,” Remonde said in Filipino.
He said that the Palace and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) are aware of the problems in the evacuation centers, particularly the risk of disease spreading among the evacuees.
“This is one of the reasons why we have to clear these evacuation centers soon because the longer the evacuees stay in the evacuation centers, the more susceptible they are to the spread of diseases,” Remonde said.
He also reported that multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer, through its medical director Dr. Anthony Leachon, has committed to donate medicine to treat leptospirosis.
Meanwhile, a group of medical organizations asked the government yesterday to divert its budget for health-related infomercials to arresting the outbreaks of leptospirosis.
Dr. Julie Caguiat, spokesperson of Samahang Operasyong Sagip (SOS), said the government should “decisively act” on the surging number of leptospirosis patients and other potential outbreaks in areas devastated by back-to-back storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng.
“If the government has money to pay for medical advisories, print ads, it must have more funds for disease outbreaks,” she noted in a statement.
While the DOH had reportedly directed its hospitals to render free services to leptospirosis victims, the SOS has been receiving reports that many patients were being turned away due to lack of facilities.
“These are extraordinary moments which require extraordinary decisions by the government. Most of the disaster affected communities are the urban poor who have no means to pay for medical services at this point,” Caguiat added.
She maintained the government should spend more money to ensure adequate treatment and management of patients than spend for infomercials. – With Marvin Sy, Sheila Crisostomo
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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