BAGUIO CITY – The City Health Services Office has reported that the critical period of the acute gastroenteritis outbreak here has passed.
The city government is now focusing on the pathogens that caused the disease as well as the source and circumstances of the contamination.
HEALTH personnel gather water samples on January 15 at the Mount Cabuyao Rainwater Catch basin and its water treatment facility managed by the Baguio Water District to be sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City for testing. (Baguio PIO)
The nine main water sources of the Baguio Water District tested negative for fecal coliform based on the summary of laboratory analysis conducted on January 9.
Most of these water samples were taken from Harrison and Market deep wells, Camp Allen tank, and City Hall, Malvar 2, and Kisad deep wells.
Water samples obtained from the cistern tank of SM City-Baguio and at the water meter on the parking extension also tested negative for bacterial contaminants.
Water for the cistern tank is supplied by the BWD on top of the mall’s water deliveries from private haulers.
The nine water samples were analyzed through the chromogenic and enzyme substrate rapid test that can detect and identify microorganisms within 18 to 24 hours and is compliant with the 2017 Philippines National Standard for Drinking Water with regards to fecal coliform organisms.
The BWD has a total of 63 deep wells, 77 pumping stations, four spring sources, and two rainwater harvesting facilities, serving a total of 48,450 active connections as of December 31.
City Health Officer Celia Flor Brillantes said the downward trend of the epidemic curve was sustained as the number of new cases continued to dwindle beginning on January 9.
From as high as 520 cases on January 8, cases dramatically decreased to just 14 on January 14.
There were no fatalities and majority of the cases had either recovered or on their way to recovery.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong here said investigation and clinical analyses will continue to ascertain the cause and source of the infection and only then can they say that the outbreak has ended. "Looking at the trend and the developments, we can say that we are getting there," Magalong said.
Local health authorities said that virology tests conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City on stool specimens collected from 10 patients yielded positive results for either norovirus and sapovirus.
However, the CHSO and the Department of Health-Epidemiology Bureau said the results remain inconclusive as more tests and specimens are needed to determine the exact pathogen that caused the widespread illness.
The CHSO public health laboratory conducted microbial analyses of 64 samples from water sources and found out that 10 that were positive for E.coli bacteria while the BWD which also conducted sampling of its water sources reported that all of the 83 samples gathered from its deep wells tested negative for the bacteria.
Results of parallel tests by the RITM on samples from BWD sources as well as the bacteriological examinations of the stools will soon be released to aid in the investigation.