BY GLENDA TAYONA
ILOILO City – Parents should be more cautious as majority of the cases and deaths due to acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in this southern city are kids aged below 10 years old.
Data released by the City Health Office (CHO) – City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) showed that almost half or 222 of the 454 total AGE cases as of Sept. 7 were children from age group 1 to 10 years old.
Meantime, 43 cases were infants aged less than one year old while 60 cases belonged to the 11 to 20 years old age group. Fifty eight cases were 41 years old and up and the rest of the cases were under age group 31 to 40 years old.
As to the AGE deaths which total to 10, seven were kids while the rest were adults aged 31 years old, 46 years old and 63 years old.
The deaths that belonged to pediatric population were a two-year-old boy from Rizal Pala-pala, City Proper; an eight-year-old girl from Zone 6, Calumpang, Molo; a four-month-old girl from Tanza Timawa II, City Proper; a five-year-old boy from Zone 6 B, Boulevard, Molo; an 11-month-old old girl from Zone 7, Santo Rosario-Duran, City Proper; a three-year-old boy from Zone 8, Veterans Village, City Proper; and a seven-month-old boy from Zone 5, Gustilo, La Paz.
As to the 12 confirmed cholera cases, four of these were pediatric cases but all recovered already.
According to CHO Medical Officer IV, Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna, the city government coordinated with pediatric specialists of the Philippine Pediatric Society and tapped their expertise in managing AGE cases.
Fortuna said the group will hold a lecture for medical doctors and those in the hospitals on how to manage cases of AGE, most especially the cholera cases.
He added that they shared helpful inputs especially that the city is planning to operate its own hydration unit for AGE cases here.
The city government is currently hiring eight medical doctors, 25 nurses, six medical technologists, four laboratory aides, nine nursing aides, nine utility, and three drivers to be deployed to the hydration unit at So-oc, Arevalo district.
On the other hand, CHO-CESU data shows that the AGE patients who have recovered already increased to 358 or 79 percent of the total cases as of Sept. 7 while 43 cases or 9.5 percent are still admitted at the hospital. Forty-two or 9.3 percent are being managed at home and 10 or 2.2 percent are death cases./PN
