AN improvised water chlorinator will be set up while tablets were distributed to residents of Badian town as local health officials declared a diarrhea outbreak after cases increased to 133 yesterday.
An improvised chlorinator is needed while the town waits for a permanent one to deal with contaminated water in barangay Tubod.
“The municipal engineer will source out today (Tuesday) the materials for the improvised chlorinator. Once purchased, we will teach them how to assemble and to properly maintain the chlorinator,” said Rennan Cimafranca, chief of the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU).
Tablets of tryclosene sodium, a water disinfectant that dissolves in 20 liters of water, were distributed to Tubod households.
“It is not enough to manage the patients because it does not stop the spread of diarrhea. We have to improve their water system,” said Cimafranca, who met with barangay officials.
If more tablets are needed, Cimafranca advised residents to head to their health officers.
Cimafranca advised local health officials to mobilize their barangay health workers to closely monitor both identified and unidentified victims in each purok.
He assured residents that checkups and the tablets are given free.
As of Monday, the Badian District Hospital has 36 admissions with 96 patients having passed through the out-patient department (OPD).
The Integrated Provincial Health Office expects the number of cases to continue to rise.
IPHO head Dr. Cristina Giango said they learned that there are still some residents who haven’t sought consultation or check-up in their health centers.
Giango said they mobilized all their rural health officers in Badian town to go house to house in barangay Tubod.
Of the 133 cases recorded, 32 came from barangays Basiao, Ginablan, Candiis and Alawijao.
Giango said most patients were school children in Tubod Elementary School.
The results of the rectal swabs and water sampling done last Saturday have yet to be known.
A typhoid outbreak was also reported in Tuburan town earlier this year and local officials blamed the contaminated water supply for the incidence.
Late last year, contaminated water supply also caused a typhoid outbreak in Alegria town.