BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson is set to declare an outbreak of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) in Negros Occidental. The Provincial Health Office (PHO) reported a 6,300 percent increase in cases this year.
“(It) is very alarming. They are [PHO] in a better position to advise the declaration of an outbreak. They are experts. I would have to follow their judgment,” Lacson said yesterday.
From Jan. 1 to 31, the PHO recorded 320 cases – a very sharp rise from five cases recorded in the same period last year.
Kabankalan City has the highest number of HFMD cases at 73.
The PHO’s Provincial Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit last week recommended declaring outbreaks in local government units that have reached the criteria for epidemics in HFMD.
When an outbreak is declared, Lacson said, city and municipal health units should exert more effort to inform their respective constituents about the contagious illness.
“We will also alert the Department of Education because mostly, it is young children that are affected. If they see students having signs, they can send them home to isolate,” the governor added.
Last week, the PHO urged municipal and city health offices to intensify their information drive on how to avoid HFMD such as observing minimum public health standards.
HFMD is characterized by painful sores in the mouth and a rash on the hands and feet. It spreads through direct contact with droplets from coughing or sneezing, touching an infected person or through kissing, hugging, or sharing utensils, contact with an infected person’s feces, and touching infected objects and surfaces.
HFMD may cause all of the following signs and symptoms or just some of them:
* fever
* sore throat
* feeling unwell
* painful, red, blister-like lesions on the tongue, gums, and inside of the cheeks
* a red rash, without itching but sometimes with blistering, on the palms, soles, and sometimes the buttocks
* irritability in infants and toddler
* loss of appetite/PN
