BAGUIO CITY – The City Schools Division approved the request of the Cordillera office of the Department of Health (DOH) to conduct a more scientific test and analysis on the schoolchildren of a public elementary school in the city who initially tested positive for urinary tract infection (UTI).
City Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Federico Martin branded the earlier report that 96 percent of the pupils of the Pinget Elementary School have UTI based on the conduct of a dip stick analysis by the City health Services office as totally erroneous considering that the results of the initial test require confirmatory laboratory examination.
He claimed that the report claiming that 96 percent of the 765 pupils of the Pinget Elementary School is already false considering that the whole population of the school was used as a basis in coming out with the conclusive figure when in fact, only the pupils of Grade 1 to 4 numbering to over 300 individuals were the ones that were subjected to the dip stick test.
Further, Martin also claimed that the pupils who were interviewed in the controversial UTI report belong to Grade 6 who were not even part of the pupils who were subjected to the said initial test.
Dra. Jocelyn de Jesus, a medical officer of the City Schools Division, claimed that dip stick test is an accepted strategy of health workers to initially ascertain individuals who are prone to UTI but the results of the said test are not actually conclusive, thus, the need for those tested to still undergo further laboratory tests like urinalysis to ascertain whether or not they contracted UTI.
According to her, UTI is a bacterial infection that could be aggravated by the failure of individuals to take in the required volume of water that will flush the bacteria and other unnecessary waste inside a person’s body through urinating.
Martin explained that the education department is transparent about what is happening within the agency and the schools within its jurisdiction provided that there will be close coordination among the concerned government agencies and the local government in the implementation of programs, projects and interventions that will promote the good health of the pupils and the students without damaging the image of the institution.
If the confirmatory tests on the pupils will turnout to be that high in terms of those who have contracted UTI, Martin added then the agency, in coordination with the health department and the local government, will have to craft the appropriate interventions necessary to curb the significant increase in the number of pupils who have contracted UTI to prevent the situation from going out of control but it is also worth correcting the data once the confirmatory results will show otherwise.
He admitted that their central office was alarmed over the report but local education officials, in coordination with health authorities, were able to provide the real scenario on what really happened to allay the fears that there is an alarming number of pupils in the city who have contracted UTI based on the results of the dip stick test which is yet subject to confirmation by future laboratory tests.
By Dexter A. Se
