Soldier, 2 civilians diagnosed with leprosy in North Cotabato town
KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato, Philippines — Three persons, including a soldier, had been diagnosed with leprosy in Kabacan, North Cotabato, health officials there confirmed on Tuesday.
Ruth Pasion, leprosy coordinator of the Kabacan Rural Health Unit, said the leprosy victims came from the villages of Dagupan and Bannawag.
Pasion said the victims have been receiving treatment and have been placed under tight monitoring by the RHU.
“They are under tight watch by our health experts and being given medication,” she said.
Pasion said the victims had sought medical help after they manifested leprosy symptoms such as skin sores and lumps.
Medical test results later confirmed that they were afflicted with leprosy, also called Hansen’s disease.
“In the case of the soldier victim, he manifested the symptom 10 years after he was infected,” she said.
Medical journals describe leprosy as a chronic infection caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. An infected person may only show symptoms five years after infection.
Persons suffering from leprosy develop symptoms such as granulomas (inflammation) of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes, which result in painlessness or numbness and weakness, poor eyesight, among others.
Pasion said the discovery of the leprosy cases should not alarm other residents in the area because the victims have been undergoing treatment.
“What they need is support and understanding of their respective families and the community as well,” she said.
Meanwhile, there have been reports of three children dying of complications arising from measles in the town of Kabacan but local health authorities have not been able to verify the reports.
Honey Joy Cabellon, head of Kabacan’s Municipal Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (MESU), admitted some 30 suspected measles cases were monitored in the town during the past weeks.
Cabellon said on Tuesday that they were still waiting for test results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila before concluding that the three reported deaths were due to complications from measles.
In South Cotabato, meanwhile, health authorities had confirmed that four children recently died due to measles.
The victims were among the 19 confirmed measles cases recorded in the province since the start of the 2014, Cecil Lorenzo, the head of South Cotabato’s provincial epidemiology surveillance unit (PESU).
Lorenzo said many of the monitored measles cases involved un-vaccinated children who were less than a year old up to 9 years old.
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