MANILA, Philippines—Foreign experts on post-disaster illnesses have arrived in the country to study the leptospirosis outbreak that hit Metro Manila, Rizal and other provinces in Luzon after Tropical Storm "Ondoy" (international codename: Ketsana) and Typhoon "Pepeng" (Parma) battered the country last September 26 and September 30, respectively.
Dr. Eric Tayag, chief epidemiologist of the Department of Health, said the foreign experts will work with local infectious disease experts to identify the strain of the bacteria leptospira and identify the animal source that killed 167 and infected 2,000 in Metro Manila alone.
Tayag told reporters at a health forum organized by the Philippine College of Physicians Tuesday that doctors from the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), consisting of experts from the Leptospirosis Center of Netherlands and the World Health Organization, are in the country.
Leptospirosis is a life-threatening infection that one could get after swallowing or wading in water contaminated with the urine of an infected animal, usually rats.
Symptoms include fever, weakness, rashes and muscle pain. If not addressed early, complications include kidney, liver or brain damage that could be fatal.
“They (experts) are here to study the prevailing strain of leptospira. This will help identify why the current leptospirosis is fierce resulting to a lot of deaths. By identifying the strain, we can also identify the animal where the strain originated from as there are strains that are specific only to certain animals,” Tayag said.
He said the experts would also try to find out why so many patients are dying from the disease, the kind of complications observed, and if there are compounding diseases that aggravate leptospirosis patients.
He said the foreign experts will be in the country for three weeks and afterwards present their recommendations to the DOH.
Between October 1 up to October 26, 15 sentinel hospitals in Metro Manila have reported 2,158 admissions of leptospirosis cases of which 167 have died. The DOH reported a total of 800 leptospirosis cases for the entire 2008.
