Flooding and leptospirosis

We welcome Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III’s call for the Provincial Board to release more money for better health services.

The governor said he envisioned improved performance and infrastructure in “district hospitals with inherent defects” like the undermanned Isidro Kintanar Memorial Hospital in Argao, his ancestral hometown.

In Cebu City, Mayor Michael Rama assured residents that he will expand the Cebu City Medical Center and build a satellite hospital in the mountain barangay of Bonbon.

The execution of these plans, if expedited, will benefit many especially those who are more vulnerable to diseases like leptospirosis, which like the mosquito-borne dengue is also prevalent this rainy season.

National news organizations reported that Cebu recorded this season’s first case of the often fatal bacterial disease that humans contract through contact with rat urine. The disease claimed five lives here back in 2009.

Last year, the Department of Health counted more than 1,500 cases of leptospirosis across the country. This year so far, one died in Iloilo City while 36 others were infected. In Davao City, the disease claimed at least five lives.

Symptoms include headaches, physical weakness and jaundice within seven to 12 days from the moment of catching the disease.

The leptospirosis-causing bacteria normally enters the human body through cuts or wounds exposed to flood waters mixed with contaminated animal, often rat urine.

Health officials have intensified their information drive against the disease, with people being warned against wading into floods or runoff rainwater.

Those who have no choice but to slosh through puddles, waterlogged roads or overflowing waterways were advised to wear protective boots.

But people especially in the cities would all be better shielded from the disease if officials get their acts together and stop flooding by overhauling the drainage system and keeping their promise to improve waste management.

Mounds of uncollected trash which end up in the waterways or swept away by floods encourage the flourishing of leptospirosis microbe-bearing rodents.

Failure to stem the cutting of trees in mountain barangays and the subjection of drainage master plans to petty political quarrels will prolong the age of flash floods in the metropolis.

If our leaders care enough, they will not let politics like the unfolding circus in the runup to the October barangay elections get in the way of development projects. They will accomplish much in flood mitigation.