ILOILO City – A number of children here are still being treated for acute gastroenteritis (AGE).
Fourteen are in the hospitals while 25 are being managed at home, according to Dr. Marigold Calsas, chief of the City Health Office’s (CHO) City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU).
“We continue to monitor them. Eventually maga-ayo man ‘ni sila because ma-hydrate na sila,” said Calsas.
As of Monday, Sept. 19, cases of AGE in the city reached 618. Half of these, or 309, were children between one to 10 years old; 77 were between 11 to 20 years old; and 53 were below one year old.
Why kids are prone to AGE?
Calsas said children do not prepare their food; they just consume what is given to them. In some cases, she said, they eat anywhere and anything they want, sometimes out of curiosity.
“Indi sila conscious kon clean ang food for as long as makakaon sila,” Calsas lamented.
Their parents or guardians should make sure the food of their children are safe, she stressed.
“Sometimes mas damu pa ang time sang kabataan with their friends, sa iban nga balay,” said Calsas.
Meanwhile, CHO head Dr. Annabelle Tang cited the importance of early management of AGE, especially among kids.
Some died of dehydration because of the delay in bringing them to the hospital, she said.
She cited the case of a one-year-old baby from Barangay Lanit, Jaro district. The mother was reluctant to bring her baby to the hospital.
“By the time nga nagapalanggit-om na ang bata, didto pa-lang sya nag-surrender nga ipa-admit,” said Tang.
The recovery rate of AGE cases is high, said Tang, if there is early management (patients are hydrated immediately).
It should be noted that of the 618 AGE cases in the city, 570 have already recovered; 15 are still in hospitals, 21 are at home cases; while the death toll stands at 12, most of them children.
122 barangays log AGE cases
Meanwhile, of the 180 barangays in the city, 122 or 68 percent are affected by AGE, according to CESU report.
Calsas said, of the figure, 27 barangays still have active AGE cases.
The city on Monday recorded 11 new cases from Lapuz – five; Sto. Rosario – two; and one each from Arevalo, La Paz, Mandurriao, and Molo.
No cases were added in Tanza, Jaro I and Jaro II.
Data also shows that 92.2 percent of AGE cases have already recovered including the 15 cases of confirmed cholera, 36 are still active cases and currently admitted at the hospital or on home management, while 12 are death cases.
Here is the breakdown of the 618 total AGE cases: 142 are from Molo, 47 from Mandurriao, 50 from Lapuz, 53 from La Paz, 66 from Jaro I, 24 from Jaro II, 105 from Arevalo, 59 from Sto. Rosario (City Proper), and 72 from Tanza (City Proper).
Calsas noted that the daily average number of AGE cases recorded in the city for the past seven days is 12.
Hydration unit
CHO medical officer IV, Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna, said the city’s hydration unit for AGE cases in Barangay So-oc, Arevalo will soon be operational.
He said that the city is just waiting for medical supplies to arrive, then they could operate the facility.
They expect the facility to run for about three months, depending on the number of cases of AGE in the city.
The medical officer stressed that the hydration unit will be a big help for patients who cannot go to the hospital due to financial constraint.
He noted that the expenses are one of the reasons why some patients refuse to be admitted to the hospital.
Fortuna stressed that the most important thing is for the patient to be given immediate care, especially rehydration./PN
