In Bulacan, leptospirosis causes 5 deaths
CITY OF MALOLOS—Bulacan recorded five deaths due to leptospirosis from June to August, health officials said in a report on Friday.
Based on the data of the Provincial Health Office (PHO), the towns of Balagtas, Calumpit and Obando recorded one fatality each; and two of the three cases of leptospirosis in the City of San Jose del Monte resulted to death.
Dr. Edwin Tecson, chief of the Bulacan PHO, said that from Jan. 1 to Aug. 10, there were 58 leptospirosis incidents in the province, which was 3 percent lower compared to the 60 cases recorded over the same period last year.
Tecson said the affected persons were from 7 to 79 years old but those in the age brackets of 15-19, 20-24 and 25-29 comprised the most numbers of afflicted residents.
According to Patricia Castro, PHO education and promotion officer, Marilao town has the highest leptospirosis incidents this year with 15 cases, followed by City of Meycauayan (12), and City of Malolos (5).
Leptospirosis is a disease that affects humans and animals and is caused by the bacterium Leptospira that can be found in contaminated water or soil. When untreated, leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, trouble breathing, and even death in people.
Risk categories
The PHO has already distributed 500 boxes and a total of 57,000 capsules of doxycycline as preventive and post-infection medicines to the residents whose towns and villages have been submerged into flood waters for up to more than three weeks due to rains spawned by Supertyphoon “Carina” (international name: Gaemi) and the southwest monsoon that hit Metro Manila and Central Luzon last month.
“Moderate risks” persons are those with open wounds and abrasions who exposed their feet and legs to flood. They are also advised to take two capsules of doxycycline within 24 to 72 hours upon exposure.
Those who are categorized as “high risk” individuals are those who swam in the flood, had several days of exposure and accidentally drank flood waters. They are advised to take two capsules of doxycycline every week until the exposure to flood ends.
Marilao and the City of Meycauayan were submerged in up to 12 feet of flood caused by the water that overflowed from the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela (Camanava) area, according to Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office chief Manuel Lukban Jr. in a statement.
