BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Department of Health (DOH-CAR) revealed that typhoid fever cases in the region drastically dropped by 53 percent for the first seven months of this year after registering a total of 1,057 cases compared to the 2,255 cases recorded during the same period last year.
Dra. Lakshmi Legaspi, DOH-CAR regional director, said the cases came from Benguet with 324 cases, Kalinga with 187 cases, Ifugao – 141 cases, Apayao – 122 cases, Mountain Province – 117 cases, Baguio City – 74 cases, Abra – 16 cases and non-CAR provinces – 25 cases.
The DOH-CAR said 533 females, equivalent to 50.4 percent, were reportedly affected by the dreaded illness.
Based on the report of the regional epidemiology and surveillance unit (RESU), the age range of those who contracted typhoid fever cases was from 10 days to 97 years old with the median of 21 years old.
However, Legaspi admitted there was one death due to typhoid fever and that the patient originated from the Cagayan Valley.
Last month, Legaspi claimed there were 148 typhoid fever suspect cases that were reported by the different rural health units which is 68 percent lower compared to the 465 cases that were recorded during the similar period last year.
According to the RESU report, the recorded typhoid suspect cases came from Kalinga with 52 cases, Benguet with 34 cases, Mountain Province – 29 cases, Apayao – 18 cases, Ifugao – 4 cases, Baguio City – 8 cases and non-CAR provinces with 4 case4s.
The DOH-CAR official added there were 87 females which account for 58 percent of the total number of individuals who were affected by the said illness.
Further, the age range of the affected individuals was from 4 months to 82 years old with a median of 15 years old.
Legaspi noted there were clustering of cases in the different parts of the region but the timely intervention of health authorities prevented the occurrence of a possible outbreak of the dreaded illness in the identified potential areas where outbreak was supposedly likely.
Typhoid fever is a systematic bacterial disease with insidio7us onset of sustained fever, severe headache, malaise, anorexia, splenomegaly, non-productive cough in the early stage of the illness and constipation more often than diarrhea in adults.
The DOH-CAR official explained the infection is transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated feces, food and water which are taken by an individual.
The preventive measures include the practice of handwashing with soap and running water before food preparation and before eating, after using the toilet and maintain a high standard of personal hygiene, maintain rigorous standards of cleanliness in food handling and food preparation, especially salads and other cold served foods, report all diarrheal cases with increasing trend or clustering to the RESU and practice proper food storage.
By HENT