The medical team of Tanay municipal government visited again on Saturday, Oct. 1, Barangay Sta. Ines, an upland village in Tanay, Rizal, where a diarrhea outbreak has already killed one and downed some 50 members of the indigenous community known as Dumagat Remontado.
In a phone interview on Friday night, Sept. 30, Dr. Amor Dulce Rivera, municipal health officer, told Manila Bulletin that Mayor Lito Tanjuatco was scheduled to go with the town government’s health personnel to personally attend to the needs of the natives who are mostly adult residents of Purok Ilaya, Sitio Nayon in Barangay Sta. Ines.
As of Friday night, three of the natives remained at the Rizal Provincial Hospital System in Morong, Rizal. They underwent treatment for severe dehydration after suffering from diarrhea.
Earlier this week, one of the adult villagers died due to severe dehydration as a result of diarrhea caused by amoeba, according to Dr. Rivera.
The medical team distributed medicines, oral rehydration solutions, mineral water and some goods to the community.
Dr. Rivera said the natives’ sickness was traced to the spring water contaminated with feces.
Members of the medical team will be staying in the community alternately for one week while the home treatment of the sick natives is ongoing.
The doctor said the team who first visited the community on Thursday, Sept. 29, to attend to the medical emergency of the Dumagats, conducted an information drive in the diarrhea-affected areas.
They taught the natives proper hygiene including the importance of boiling the water they drink.
The spring is the only available source of water in their area.