MANILA, Philippines — A senior citizen died while 33 others were hospitalized due to what was believed as a diarrhea outbreak in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental, its mayor Jason John Joyce said Sunday.
“JAS [Jose Abad Santos] DIARRHEA OUTBREAK UPDATE. Sa ngayon po ay may 33 patients po tayo sa District Hospital sa poblacion JAS,” Joyce said in a Facebook post.
https://www.facebook.com/jason.john.319/posts/10158916943404710
Joyce said the lone fatality is a 68-year-old male. He assured it could not have been due to COVID-19 since the town has no known active case of the respiratory disease.
“Hindi po COVID kasi sa ngayon po, zero po kami sa active cases ng COVID at medyo strict po tayo sa ating implementation ng health protocols,” Joyce said in an interview on Teleradyo.
(It’s not due to COVID because right now, we have zero active cases of COVID and we are strict in the implementation of health protocols.)
Authorities are looking at the town’s water source as the possible cause of the diarrhea.
“Yung lugar po kasi namin is considered as geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. Wala pong water district sa buong locality. Either sa poso po or direct source sa mga spring or rivers. Wala pong water district sa municipality,” Joyce said.
(Our area is considered as a geographically isolated and disadvantaged area. There is no water district in the entire locality. The people get their water either from deep wells or spring or rivers. There is no water district in the municipality.)
“May mga minsanan na din po na na ganitong pangyayari sa iba’t ibang barangay natin dahil nga po open po ang water source natin at exposed siya sa mga bacteria,” he went on.
(This has happened a few times before in various villages because our water source is open and exposed to bacteria.)
While the Department of the Interior and Local Government has programs to distribute clean water, Joyce said this is not enough for the entire Jose Abad Santos town.