Will city lift ‘state of calamity’ due to waterborne diseases?

Will city lift 'state of calamity' due to waterborne diseases?

The Iloilo City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (ICESU) on Thursday said no active cases of acute gastroenteritis have been recorded so far, but surveillance and monitoring will continue.

With this development, City Health Officer Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna believes the state of calamity due to the disease could be lifted.

But he did not discount the possibility that cases may recur until the root causes – problem with access to potable and safe water and sanitary toilets – are addressed.

“So far, we were able to control. It (state of calamity) can be lifted, but unless we address the root cause, there is a possibility that it will recur” Fortuna said in an interview.

Dr. Marigold Calsas, ICESU head, in a separate interview, said the city recorded 1,347 AGE cases in 2022. There were 16 reported
deaths.

The last cases monitored were the seven incidents from the district of Arevalo, but they have already recovered, Calsas added.

It was in September when the city government declared a state of calamity due to water-borne diseases like acute gastroenteritis and
cholera.

The city logged 1,347 AGE cases since it surged between late August (225) and the whole of September (517) last year.

The data indicated that 1,331 persons recovered and 16 died.

While September saw the highest number of cases, infections continued into October (216), November (187), and December (135).
Arevalo (277) logged the most AGE cases out of all districts last year, followed by City Proper (247), Jaro (232), Molo (212), La Paz (141), Lapuz (123), and Mandurriao (114). (PNA)