July 22, 2022
A total of 400 Toril vendors were trained on food handling amid suspicions that the diarrhea outbreak in the area came from a food source.
Davao City Acting City Health Officer Dr. Ashley Lopez, in an interview over the Davao City Disaster Radio on Friday, July 22, 2022, said that the vendors completed the Food Handling Seminar at the Toril Gym on July 21, 2022. The fecalysis and rectal swabbing of the vendors was also successfully conducted.
“Well-oriented ang mga vendors nakasabot sila sa sitwasyon nato karon (The vendors are well-oriented, they understood the situation we have now),” Lopez said.
He said that the City Social Welfare and Development Office also distributed food packs, not only for the vendors but also for the diarrhea patients.
Lopez said that based on the July 22 data, 233 cases have already been recorded since the outbreak started. The death of a 32-year old male teacher from Surigao Del Sur, who was a boarder at Barangay Lubogan was also recorded. He was originally hospitalized on July 16, and four days after or on July 20 transferred to the Southern Philippines Medical Center due to multiple electrolyte imbalance. Acute renal failure was declared the cause of death, which was attributed to dehydration.
A total of 18 barangays of Toril have recorded cases of diarrhea. These are Alambre, Bangkas Heights, Baracatan, Bato, Binugao, Camansi, Catigan, Crossing Bayabas, Daliao, Daliaon Plantation, Eden, Lizada, Lubogan, Marapangi, Mulig, Sirawan, Toril Proper, Tungkalan and one pending verification.
Outside of Toril, the barangays of Bago Aplaya, Baliok, and Dumoy have also recorded diarrhea cases but they got the disease from Toril. It has been validated that patients from these areas had visited Toril before they manifested symptoms.
Anda Riverview Medical Hospital, Adventist Hospital and Saavedra Clinic are the three additional areas of confinement for the patients
Amid these reports, Lopez said that they are seeing a decline in the number of cases.
“From the average of 30-40 patients in the past seven days, yesterday we were able to get 13 cases, hinaut magpadayon (hopefully this will continue),” Lopez said.
He added that they were also able to verify that the 3-month-old who was hospitalized for diarrhea and was included in their initial recorded cases is not covered by the days of the outbreak as the patient was admitted on July 3 and was discharged from the hospital on July 7. Lopez said that the age range is now from 6 months old to 71 years old.
Lopez said that the fecalysis of admitted patients revealed that the bacteria that caused the diarrhea are all linked to a food source.
He, however, said that they will wait for the findings of the third-party analysis and surveillance from the DOH Central Office before they will make conclusions. They will also submit the result of the tests to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine for further verification.
Lopez asked the public anew for cooperation, as well as vendors to follow advisories. CIO
