MANILA – Palawan remains to be the only province in the country that is not free from malaria, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Tuesday.
“Sa ngayon po at this current time, 80 out of the 81 provinces in the country are all malaria-free already, iisa na lang po [ang hindi] at ‘yun po ang Palawan,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing.
Vergeire said that Oriental Mindoro, Rizal, Aurora, and Cotabato were the latest provinces declared “malaria-free” in 2022.
She added that the DOH is closely working with the local government of Palawan to free the province from malaria.
“Syempre alam natin it is not just this mosquito pero ‘yung environment where the mosquito thrives, para po mas ma-prevent ito pong pagkalat ng transmission ng sakit na ito,” Vergeire explained.
“So we are working very hard with the local government at katulong po natin ang iba’t ibang mga private sector…so that we can help Palawan to achieve this malaria free province,” she added.
As defined by the DOH, malaria is a parasitic infection caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito.
The symptoms include high fever, headache, chills and shivers, nausea and vomiting, and may develop into severe cases which include severe vomiting and diarrhea, generalized convulsion, delirium and impaired consciousness, followed by coma and possibly death. (Zacarian Sarao © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
