BY GLENDA TAYONA
ILOILO City – A total of 34 water refilling stations here have already been served with closure orders and four more will be closed today for lack of pertinent documents to operate.
City Health Office (CHO) Medical Officer IV, Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna, said most of these refilling stations have no sanitary permits and water analysis and the health cards of their personnel have already expired.
He also noted that some of these water stations tested positive for coliform and E. coli bacteria.
The CHO has so far monitored a total of 241 water refilling stations in the city; 188 have been inspected and 50 were found with no papers.
Meantime, five water refilling stations tested positive for both coliform and E. coli and 20 positive for coliform.
Moreover, Fortuna said the Iloilo City Compliance Team has started augmenting the CHO in monitoring and inspecting deep wells and water refilling stations. The Business Processing and Licensing Office personnel are joining the inspection.
“Nasudlan na nila ang Molo, La Paz and Jaro. Amat-amat na nga gasulolod ang mga report and this will be forwarded sa aton Sanitary Division para nga final check na gid ni,” he said.
MORE CASES, MORE DEATHS
The CHO recorded 26 new cases of acute gastroenteritis (AGE), bringing the total cases to 419 cases as of Sept. 6, 2022.
Aside from this, the death toll due to AGE rose to 10 with one additional death while the confirmed cholera cases also increased to 12 following four more cases.
The new AGE death is a seven-month old baby boy from Zone 5, Barangay Gustilao, La Paz who died on Aug. 31 at the Western Visayas Medical Center.
Meanwhile, the two additional cases of cholera are from Barangay Tanza-Esperanza, City Proper; one from Barangay North Baluarte, Molo; and another one from Barangay Bolilao, Mandurriao.
According to CHO-City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head Dr. Marigold Calsas, two of the new cases of cholera are students from a university who have history of consuming street food like “kwek-kwek” and gulaman.
As to the number of AGE cases, the City Proper has the most at 112 followed by Molo with 93; Jaro with 68; Arevalo with 63; Lapuz with 37; La Paz with 26; and Mandurriao with 22./PN
