Sarangani to contain rising diarrhea cases in remote village

SANTOS CITY -- Health personnel in Sarangani Province have launched emergency health interventions to contain the rising cases of diarrhea in a remote village in Alabel town.

Dr. Karl Ivan Daryl Igrobay, medical officer of the Alabel Municipal Health Office (MHO), said Tuesday a total of 61 residents of Sitio New Canaan in Barangay Pag-asa have already been affected by diarrhea the past several days.

He said the affected residents, six of whom were earlier referred for hospital confinement, exhibited various symptoms of the bacterial disease, among them severe loose bowel movement.

The Alabel MHO sent a team to the area over the weekend to conduct emergency health services for the diarrhea-stricken residents.

“They’re so far okay and their cases were not quite severe. But we’re continually monitoring the situation there since the disease is not yet fully contained,” he said in an interview over a local television station.

Nurse Rashid Khaliff Dignadice, member of the Alabel-MHO team, said their assessment showed that the rising diarrhea cases could have been triggered by contaminated drinking water.

He said local residents have been sourcing drinking water directly from a spring near the community.

The area used to have two intake water boxes but were damaged last year by landslides and heavy rains, he said.