Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Worm in seafood kills dozens in Zambo villages
Inquirer
Last updated 02:51am (Mla time) 11/13/2007
SIAYAN, ZAMBOANGA DEL Norte—Health officials confirmed the capillariasis outbreak in several villages of this town where more than 70 people, including children, have reportedly died.
Dr. Raymund Nadela, municipal health officer, expressed alarm over the health situation in some villages, saying that the capillaria worm (Capillaria philippinensis) attack “is now an outbreak.”
Based on random tests of wastes from 326 residents in the area, 81 people have been found positive for the disease, Nadela said.
Emeliano Villalon, chair of Barangay Moyo, said that since he was elected late October, a total of 31 adults and nine children have died of capillariasis.
Villalon said 38 others died from April to August.
But Nadela said he could not “outrightly say those who died earlier were confirmed to have capillariasis.”
“We labeled them as deaths with suspected capillariasis,” he said.
Nadela said the victims got the disease from eating freshwater fish and shrimps from the nearby rivers of Siayan.
“These shrimps and fish are carrying this type of worm known as capillaria, a microscopic worm that gets into the intestine and eats up all the nutrition of the person,” he said.
Maria Teresita dela Cruz, information officer of the Department of Health in Western Mindanao, said some people in the province “love to eat kinilaw and there’s a particular fish from the river which they love to eat raw with vinegar.”
Dela Cruz said other than Siayan town, the health department received the same report in the village of Femagas in Katipunan town.
“But we don’t have clear records as of this moment,” she said.
Virgilio Lumawas, 43, a farmer of Moyo village, survived capillariasis but still complained of diarrhea.
Nadela said patients found with capillaria worms showed symptoms like diarrhea, extreme abdominal pain that leads to anemia, and muscle wasting.
“People think that they have gas pains, but the pain becomes excruciating coupled with a gurgling sound, then the patient could hardly eat or sleep,” Nadela explained.
Siayan Mayor Wilfredo Suasico said he became alarmed by the deteriorating health situation “when I keep on signing for approval request letters and solicitations for coffins.”
Since October, Suasico said, he had granted the release of funds for the purchase of 32 coffins intended for the villages of Moyo, Dinuyan, Poblacion Lopot, Polayo, Balunukan and Baloc.
The outbreak and the hardest hit, according to Nadela, is Moyo village where, Suasico said, a total 24 coffins were delivered last month.
Nadela said that aside from capillariasis, the town was noted for the presence of lymphatic filariasis or elephantiasis, an abnormal growth of the lymphatic nodes due to a mosquito-borne disease that attacks the blood, and leprosy.
Although the cases of filariasis and leprosy have been taken care of since two years ago, Nadela still considers the diseases serious in some villages of Siayan. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao, with Inquirer Research
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=100563
Inquirer
Last updated 02:51am (Mla time) 11/13/2007
SIAYAN, ZAMBOANGA DEL Norte—Health officials confirmed the capillariasis outbreak in several villages of this town where more than 70 people, including children, have reportedly died.
Dr. Raymund Nadela, municipal health officer, expressed alarm over the health situation in some villages, saying that the capillaria worm (Capillaria philippinensis) attack “is now an outbreak.”
Based on random tests of wastes from 326 residents in the area, 81 people have been found positive for the disease, Nadela said.
Emeliano Villalon, chair of Barangay Moyo, said that since he was elected late October, a total of 31 adults and nine children have died of capillariasis.
Villalon said 38 others died from April to August.
But Nadela said he could not “outrightly say those who died earlier were confirmed to have capillariasis.”
“We labeled them as deaths with suspected capillariasis,” he said.
Nadela said the victims got the disease from eating freshwater fish and shrimps from the nearby rivers of Siayan.
“These shrimps and fish are carrying this type of worm known as capillaria, a microscopic worm that gets into the intestine and eats up all the nutrition of the person,” he said.
Maria Teresita dela Cruz, information officer of the Department of Health in Western Mindanao, said some people in the province “love to eat kinilaw and there’s a particular fish from the river which they love to eat raw with vinegar.”
Dela Cruz said other than Siayan town, the health department received the same report in the village of Femagas in Katipunan town.
“But we don’t have clear records as of this moment,” she said.
Virgilio Lumawas, 43, a farmer of Moyo village, survived capillariasis but still complained of diarrhea.
Nadela said patients found with capillaria worms showed symptoms like diarrhea, extreme abdominal pain that leads to anemia, and muscle wasting.
“People think that they have gas pains, but the pain becomes excruciating coupled with a gurgling sound, then the patient could hardly eat or sleep,” Nadela explained.
Siayan Mayor Wilfredo Suasico said he became alarmed by the deteriorating health situation “when I keep on signing for approval request letters and solicitations for coffins.”
Since October, Suasico said, he had granted the release of funds for the purchase of 32 coffins intended for the villages of Moyo, Dinuyan, Poblacion Lopot, Polayo, Balunukan and Baloc.
The outbreak and the hardest hit, according to Nadela, is Moyo village where, Suasico said, a total 24 coffins were delivered last month.
Nadela said that aside from capillariasis, the town was noted for the presence of lymphatic filariasis or elephantiasis, an abnormal growth of the lymphatic nodes due to a mosquito-borne disease that attacks the blood, and leprosy.
Although the cases of filariasis and leprosy have been taken care of since two years ago, Nadela still considers the diseases serious in some villages of Siayan. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao, with Inquirer Research
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=100563
