BAGUIO City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said cases of acute gastroenteritis has increased to 3,189 as of yesterday from last week’s about 1,600 but added the worst is over as the daily average has gone down.
“According to our experts, especially our epidemiologists, we are done with the critical period and our cases are on the downtrend,” he said in a television interview.
Magalong said the average daily gastroenteritis cases in the city over the past five days ranged from 25 to 27 only. “In fact, yesterday we’re looking at 18 cases,” he said.
The city began receiving reports of gastrointestinal cases as early as December 20 although the cases peaked this month.
Magalong said he, his wife and his grandchildren also had gastroenteritis but it was not “as severe as what was experienced by the other residents and visitors.”
Magalong said the city recorded a peak of 522 cases last January 8.
“Three days before, our moving average was almost 390 in one day,” he said.
“So we’re done (with the critical period). We’re now concentrating on the investigation to really determine the cause, the source of the contamination. If we can be able to really identify the origin, then that would be a good development,” he said.
The city declared an outbreak on Wednesday last week. The Department of Health (DOH) last week said initial investigation showed one of the city’s water sources has been contaminated. Last Tuesday, the DOH said the gastroenteritis outbreak has been contained.
Magalong said the city has been in similar situations before “but endemic, meaning these are the usual occurrence of diarrhea in the populace but not this widespread.
Magalong said they have tested water samples from the Baguio Water District which supplies 80 percent of the water requirement of the city. He said the test showed negative for coliform bacteria.
Magalong said the water samples are also being subjected to virology test.
“We really need the result of the virology test for us to be able to come up with some conclusions,” he said,
Magalong said investigation will soon be conducted to identify those who became negligent, leading to the outbreak.
“For the meantime, that is not our priority. Our priority is to finish the investigation, determine the cause, determine the circumstances,” he said.
“Thereafter, we will now shift to the actual investigation to determine culpability, liability and at the same time in aid of legislation because we really need also to review our sanitation code and come up with what we call a safe water ordinance,” Magalong added.
