THE FLOODING brought about by storm “Ondoy” last Satrday forced some 400,000 Filipinos to cram themselves into tiny evacuation centers where sanitation facilities are inadequate, and water supplies are more likely tainted.
While food and clothing are slowly being addressed, thanks to overwhelming outpour of help, authorities are now concentrating on health issues that have started to become a concern within the evacuation centers.
Expected to spike are diseases like cholera, diarrhea, malaria and leptospirosis (a disease spread by rats and mice).
Prime threat
The prime threat is likely to come from cholera, an infection of the gut which causes chronic diarrhea and vomiting and lead to severe dehydration and, in extreme cases, death.
Avoid untreated water. Contaminated drinking water is the most common source of cholera infection. For that reason, drink only bottled water or water you’ve boiled yourself.
Patients are usually treated with oral rehydration solution, a prepackaged mixture of sugar and salts to be mixed with water and drunk in large amounts.
While oral rehydration is almost always effective, those who are severely dehydrated are given intravenous fluids as well as antibiotic.
Infection from E. coli is also likely to increase. A type of bacteria commonly found in the intestines of animals and humans (and thus, in their feces), E. coli is sometimes washed into creeks, rivers, lakes, or groundwater.
When these waters are used as sources of drinking water and the water is not treated or inadequately treated, E. coli may end up in drinking water.
E. coli symptoms can range from mild diarrhea to abdominal cramps and blood in the stools.
For most people, the best option is to rest and drink plenty of fluids to help with dehydration and fatigue. Doctors would always advise against taking an anti-diarrheal medication as this slows down the digestive system, preventing the patient’s body from getting rid of the toxins.
The receding floodwaters are now leaving marshes which are the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects.
This could lead to an increase in the prevalence of insect-borne diseases such as malaria and possibly, dengue fever.
The best prevention
Since community-wide cleanup is still next to impossible because of the enormous debris and devastation caused by typhoon Ondoy, the best prevention is to provide evacuees with bed nets impregnated with anti-malarial chemicals to help stop transmission of the disease.
The only epidemic-prone infection that can be transmitted directly from contaminated water is leptospirosis.
Leptospirosis is transmitted to humans by direct exposure to urine or tissue of an infected animal, most especially rats, mice and even your pets.
The bacterium could enter the body through broken skin and mucous membranes by coming in contact with water, damp soil or vegetation (such as grasses, shrubs) or mud contaminated with rodent urine.
It could also enter when some one accidentally swallow contaminated food or water, which is why flood victims and rescuers – who ride the boat or makeshift raft; wade or swim in contaminated rivers, streams and floodwater – are most prone to leptospirosis.
Serious nerve inflammation
From flu-like symptoms including headaches, muscle aches, eye pain with bright lights, followed by chills and fever, a person already infected with leptospirosis will soon develop serious inflammation of the nerves to the eyes, brain, spinal column (meningitis), or other nerves.
If tested positive (culture of infected blood, urine, or spinal fluid, as well as using antibody testing), the patient is given high doses of antibiotics.
Those who develop severe liver and kidney infections may require intensive medical care and sometimes dialysis treatment.
