Diphtheria scare grips Zamboanga City as boy dies

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The city government has declared a diphtheria outbreak here after a 2-year-old boy was confirmed to have died from the highly contagious disease last week.

Dr. Rodelin Agbulos, city health officer, said the declaration came in the wake of reports that the boy, a resident of the village of Cawit, came in contact with at least 60 people before he died.

“This kind of disease is fatal especially among children under five years. It’s highly contagious,” said Agbulos, who pushed for the declaration.

The City Health Office has been closely monitoring two more suspected diphtheria cases.

Suspected cases, Agbulos said, were being reported in the villages of Mampang and Recodo.

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection transmitted from one person to another by droplets spread through sneezing, coughing and close personal contact.

While diphtheria can be prevented through vaccines, a person needed to get another shot after 10 years, Agbulos said.

He said the declaration of the outbreak will help authorities control the spread of the disease, confine it to areas with reported cases and areas where there were suspected cases.

Aristedes Tan, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH) in Western Mindanao, said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine confirmed the boy’s illness using swab samples sent to them for examination.

He said local health workers conducted surveys in areas where suspected cases were reported.

Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial said her office sent 30 vials of diphtheria toxoid here for the 60 people who had direct contact with the boy.

She said the DOH also gave them prophylaxis to prevent the spread of infection.

Ubial told reporters here that the vaccination rate for diphtheria in the country had gone down in the past years because of the shortage of pentavalent vaccine.

Pentavalent is used in combination with other vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B, which are considered life-threatening diseases.