ILOILO City – Firecracker blast injuries in Western Visayas skyrocketed to 132 from 55 as of 5:59 a.m. of Jan. 2, data from the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) showed.
These cases from Dec. 21, 2022 to Jan. 2, 2023 eclipsed the 80 cases logged in the same period last year.
Of the 132 cases, majority or 102 were logged in non-sentinel hospitals/sites while 30 sought medical treatment at DOH-sentinel hospitals in the region.
For sentinel hospitals, most of the cases were from the province of Iloilo with 14, particularly from the towns of Santa Barbara (three); New Lucena (three); Oton (two); Barotac Viejo (two); and one each from Pavia, Alimodian, Dingle, and Leganes.
Other cases were from Tapaz, Capiz; towns of Manapla and Don Salvador Benedicto and Victorias City in Negros Occidental; Iloilo City; and Bacolod City.
Meanwhile, of the 102 firecracker victims at the non-sentinel hospitals/sites, 123 were male while only nine were female.
The age group with the highest cases was one to 10 years old with 50 and 11 to 20 years old with 44.
Data also showed that most of the injuries logged in sentinel hospitals were due to kamara with eight cases or 27 percent while six of firecracker victims had liquor intoxication.
For non-sentinel sites, boga was the most common cause with 27 cases or 26 percent while 23 of the victims had liquor intoxication.
For both sentinel and non-sentinel sites, 89 firecracker victims incurred blast/burn injuries with no amputation.
In total, Negros Occidental had the most number of firecracker blast injuries at 48 followed by Iloilo province with 45, Bacolod City (11), Aklan and Capiz (nine each), Antique (six), and Guimaras and Iloilo City (two each).
The monitoring or surveillance of the DOH for firecracker-related injuries will be until Friday, Jan. 6, at 5:59 a.m./PN
