Baguio's gastroenteritis cases on a downtrend, says Magalong

Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Friday said cases of acute gastroenteritis in the city are now dwindling.

“On a dramatic downtrend na kaagad ‘yung cases namin. Doon sa epidemiological curve, pababa na siya,” Magalong said in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB.

(Our cases are already on a dramatic downtrend. Based on our epidemiological curve, it’s already going down.)

The mayor earlier declared an outbreak in the city after cases soared to over a thousand.

As of Thursday evening, he said they recorded a total of 2,302 cases.

In a separate interview, Health spokesperson Eric Tayag said cases have reached 2,700.

Magalong said cases peaked on January 8 with 430 gastroenteritis cases, which then dropped to 244 on January 9. This further decreased from 61 on January 10 to 43 cases on January 11.

“So lumalabas ‘yung aming containment and preventive measures, eh, kwan na rin, effective na rin (it appears that our containment and preventive measures are effective),” he said.

Meanwhile, 525 individuals consulted professionals while there were around 45 individuals in the hospitals as of Wednesday.

The Department of Health (DOH) has said that a water source in the city tested positive for contamination. Magalong said the Baguio Water District has up to 67 deep well sources.

“Marami pa ‘yan, hundreds pa ‘yan. Kaya lahat ‘yun itine-test namin. Ang resulta naman, inaabot ng tatlong araw. Kaya nakikiusap kami na sana, nakiusap nga kami doon sa, tatlo nang laboratoryo ang ginagamit namin para talagang matukoy talaga namin as soon as possible,” he said.

(There are hundreds. So we are testing everything. The results may be released after three days. So we are asking— we are using three laboratories to determine the cause as soon as possible.)

The mayor also affirmed that the city’s tourism was affected by the outbreak.

“Kaya lang gusto lang namin i-assure yung publiko, pati mga bisita natin, residente natin na ginagawa natin lahat para mabilis natin ma-contain ito at ma-resolve itong outbreak natin,” Magalong said.

(But we just want to assure the public, as well as visitors, and our residents that we are doing everything to contain and resolve this outbreak.)

Acute diarrhea

Meanwhile, Tayag said that though it was announced to be an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis, the DOH considers it as acute diarrhea pending result of investigation.

“Sa amin naman ay bagamat sintomas ‘yung basehan namin, acute diarrhea outbreak sapagkat tuloy-tuloy pa rin ang imbestigasyon,” Tayag said.

(For us, since our basis is the symptoms, this is an acute diarrhea outbreak because the investigation is still ongoing.) 

“Ang karaniwan kasi kapag gastroenteritis, merong mikrobyo na ano ‘yan, maaring virus o bacteria. Kaya lang dahil nga wala pang kumpirmasyon kaya hindi muna namin maitawag na acute gastroenteritis,” he added.

(Usually, for gastroenteritis, there are microbes involved, it could be viruses or bacteria. But because there is still no confirmation, we cannot call it acute gastroenteritis.) 

Tayag said the DOH has sent epidemiologists to the city.

“Para tumulong na rin kasi gusto natin malaman ano talaga ito. Sapagkat isa lamang sa water source ang nakitaan ng contamination,” Tayag said.

(So they can help because we want to figure this out. Because only one water source was found to be contaminated.)—AOL, GMA Integrated News