Mystery disease afflicts Zamboanga del Norte village

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Health officials in Western Mindanao are in a quandary as to what has killed at least four people and downed more than two dozen other people in a fishing village in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte, since late April.

Dr. Aristides Tan, director of the Department of Health in Western Mindanao, said they have been searching for answers to the mystery.

“We are very puzzled. Even our toxicologists are wondering what this disease is,” he said.

Tan said laboratory samples from the victims and the village’s surroundings had been gathered and sent to Manila for analysis.

Dr. Romeo Ong, director of the Zamboanga City Medical Center where at least 16 residents of Mantebo village have been admitted since May, said they were expecting the results from Manila to come in next week.

Ong said the patients showed the same symptoms, such as coughing, fever and mild paralysis of the lower body.

Those who succumbed to the mysterious illness died within a short period after being hospitalized, Sibuco health chief Derileen Edding said.

She cited the case of  Hadjiban Abdurahman, 23, who died 18 hours after being hospitalized on June 11.

“All the patients, according to their relatives, complained of cough, fever then numbness of the lower parts of their bodies,” Edding said. “The illness progresses so fast.”

Tan said they had initially suspected, based on the symptoms manifested by the patients, that it the ailment could have been caused by be some kind of marine toxin.

But then the manifestations were also symptoms of heavy metal poisoning and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The latter is a serious disorder that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks parts of the nervous system. This would result in nerve inflammation and causes muscle weakness, Tan said.

“That is why we need to determine first what is causing the problem so we can address it,” Tan said, adding that the samples extracted from patients for laboratory analysis included spinal fluids.

Sibuco Mayor Norbideiri Edding said health experts were expected to go to Mantebo on July 7 to conduct further investigation.

He said the local government was informed that at least 20 more patients were being treated by relatives at home.

Mantebo is a remote village in Sibuco and residents travel by sea because the road that leads to it from the town’s center was so dilapidated nobody uses it.