Diarrhea downs 39 in Leyte village

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte – At least 39 persons in a village of Borongan City were downed by diarrhea that could have been caused by contaminated water since more than a week ago.

Borongan City Mayor Fe Abunda said that based on the initial information she received, the diarrhea outbreak was first monitored in Barangay (village) Sta Fe on June 14.

Some patients were confined at the Eastern Samar Provincial Hospital, some 15 kilometers away from the barangay, which has over 2,000 residents, Abunda said in a phone interview Tuesday.

However, Abunda could not immediately give a figure as to how many were brought to the rural health centers or to the provincial hospital for treatment.

The mayor said that several of those affected involved a group of families who drew their drinking water from a deep well.

“The situation there is now under control. But we still continue in providing Oresol [oral rehydration fluid] and other medicines to the victims. I have also sent my sanitary inspectors to monitor the possible cause of the spread of the disease in the village,” Abunda said.

The regional office of the Department of Health had issued a warning of occurrence of water-borne diseases like diarrhea due to the continued rains in the region.

The DoH has said that majority of the drinking sources of the people in the region, such as deep wells, could become easily contaminated.