DOH probes deworming drive that downed W. Mindanao kids

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The Department of Health (DOH) central office has dispatched a team of epidemiologists and toxicologists to Western Mindanao to conduct a deeper investigation of the deworming campaign involving elementary school pupils in the region that resulted in the hospitalization of more than 5,500 children on Wednesday.

Dr. Rio Magpantay, director of the National Epidemiology Bureau, admitted to reporters here on Saturday that the deworming activity had become a national issue because of what happened to the children who took the anthelmintic drug, albendazole.

Dr. Ruby Constantino, the DOH assistant director in Western Mindanao, said it was unfortunate that many children were downed by the drug and that was what the agency was trying to investigate.

However, she reiterated that there was “zero death—nobody died.”

Earlier reports had it that a child died in Dinas, Zamboanga del Sur province, and another in Olutanga in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

“There was no truth to these reports,” Constantino said.

In Zamboanga del Sur, parents said they would not send back their children to school again unless health officials dialogue with them and explain what happened.

Ibrahim Buisan, 28, said what happened to his child, Almera, and more than 400 others was a clear case of poisoning after receiving 400 milligrams of albendazole.

Pane Rulloma, a member of the indigenous Subanen tribe in Lapuyan town, also in Zamboanga del Sur, said the number of children downed by the purgative drug was so big that hospitals could not take all of them.

She said the hospital in Margosatubig town, where she rushed her fourth-grader Zyrel, was congested with schoolchildren complaining of the same medical case.

Constantino said there was no truth either to reports of teachers shot or hacked or being held hostage by angry parents after children were rushed to hospitals.

Pakaruddin Bawang, chair of Linuk Madalem village in Lapuyan, admitted that he nearly had a confrontation with policemen who rushed to the village school after it was reported that he held teachers “hostage.”

Bonnel Giyaya, secretary to the Lapuyan Municipal Council, said Bawang and his men merely wanted the teachers, mostly from other places, secured from angry parents.

Magpantay said Food and Drug Administration representatives would also investigate the delivery and handling process of the drug, which the DOH central office dispatched to various schools, and why it triggered so many problems.

Dr. Marcos Redoble, head of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit in Western Mindanao, said only 688 of the more than 5,500 pupils brought to hospitals across the region had been admitted. Julie Alipala and Nash Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao