ILOILO City – Despite the increasing cases of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and cholera in some areas in Western Visayas, vaccination against the disease is not in the pipeline, according to the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6.
The region’s focus right now is the vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), explained DOH regional director Dr. Adriano Suba-an.
“Hopefully we have that (cholera vaccination program) in the future. Sa ngayon medyo hindi pa masyadong (priority), maybe in the development area. What we are focusing right now is the COVID-19 vaccination,” said Suba-an.
For AGE and cholera cases, Suba-an said, DOH-6 provides technical assistance to local governments through its Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit. For one, he said, it is the regional office that sent out for testing the collected specimens for cholera confirmation.
The DOH-6 director added that they also tapped stakeholders related to water and reminded them of the things to be done, including those water refilling stations and water laboratories.
Also, Suba-an said they are reminding local government units (LGUs) to activate their respective local health drinking quality monitoring committees.
“It should be functional sa LGU. This committee na tumitingin talaga kung ano ang kailangan sa munisipyo, kung ano ang gagawin. This is actually the committee that sits down and discuss ano ang problema tungkol sa tubig na iniinom at kung may problema, ano ang gagawin ng LGU. So we have provided assistance on that,” said Suba-an.
He noted that the DOH-6 has also provided logistics for LGUs like in Iloilo City, which included fluids, Oral Rehydration Solutions (ORESOLs), and antibiotics from the very start through the City Health Office (CHO).
The regional office has been collaborating with CHO officer-in-charge Dr. Annabelle Tang.
ILOILO CITY AGE CASES SITUATIONER
AGE cases in Iloilo City have already reached 735, with 14 deaths as of Sept. 19.
Based on the data of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), of the figure, 31 are still active cases while 690 have already recovered.
Meanwhile, the confirmed cases of cholera are now at 30, with no deaths.
It can be noted that the city government earlier expressed its plan to purchase cholera vaccines.
Initially, Metro Pacific Iloilo Water has already procured 1,000 doses and donated them to the city government./PN
