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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – The “food and waterborne-disease outbreak” declared in Barangay Handumanan has been “contained,” a city councilor said.
“Bacolod is still safe to live in,” declared Em Ang, allaying fears that possible food and water contamination has spread to other villages.
The City Health Office (CHO) declared the outbreak in Handumanan after more than a hundred pupils from Handumanan Elementary School 1 were rushed to hospitals for possible food poisoning.
According to the CHO, the pupils suffered acute gastroenteritis, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps.
Officials from the CHO and the Department of Health’s (DOH) Region 6 and central offices have yet to ascertain the exact cause of the pupils’ medical condition as of this writing.
They have taken samples from water sources around the school and the food and drinks the pupils consumed for tests.
A total of 136 pupils were taken to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, Bacolod Adventist Medical Center, Inc., The Doctors’ Hospital, and the South Bacolod General Hospital since Oct. 14.
There had been no reports of related hospital confinement since Tuesday. The last one was recorded on Monday, said Ang, chairwoman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on health.
Based on the symptoms, the pupils’ medical condition may have been caused by consuming contaminated food and beverage, the CHO said.
Before feeling ill, Ang said, the patients purchased and consumed juice, iced candy and fried chicken from the school canteen and ambulant vendors outside the school.
The councilor said the situation was now “contained effectively.”
In fact, the DOH Region 6 commended the swift action of the local government and health officials, Ang said. “We are now more conscious of what we eat and drink.”
Meanwhile, the city council urged all barangay captains to encourage ambulant vendors outside schools in their villages to submit themselves to a stool examination and de-worming at the CHO./PN
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