Schistosomiasis grips villages in Leyte town

TACLOBAN CITY—Ninety nine persons from Palo, Leyte, have fallen ill due to schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that is spread by contact with contaminated water.

Lilia Navarra, laboratory technician of the Schistosomiasis Research and Training Center based in Palo, said authorities examined the stool and blood samples of 148 persons, and found that 99 of them had schistosomiasis.

The patients were from the 33 barangays of Palo, about 12 km from the capital city of Tacloban, which was one of the areas in Leyte that were hit by floods on March 16 and 17.

The floods that hit Palo last March was confirmed  as the cause of the spread of the infection.

The number of patients may rise since several people from different barangays in Palo had visited the center to have their blood and stool samples examined for possible infection, said Navarra.

On Wednesday, 23 persons went to the center for tests.

One of them was a 21-year-old woman, who asked not to be identified.

She said she had been suffering from fever and body malaise in the past few days. She decided to go to the center after several of her neighbors tested positive of schistosomiasis.

“I just hope that it (my test results) will be negative,” she said.

According to Navarra, the patients may have waded in flood waters which were populated with snails, the intermediate host of cercaria, the parasitic larvae that causes the disease.