The city government lifted its gastroenteritis outbreak declaration on Thursday, with authorities tracing at least 80 percent of the cases that affected over 3,000 people since middle of December 2023 to contaminated water.
“We can now confidently say (that) we are out of the woods. The outbreak is over,” Mayor Benjamin Magalong said in a late afternoon press conference here.
Dr. Celia Flor Brillantes, acting city health officer, said investigations showed that deep wells where water delivery trucks source their supply, which are then delivered to households and establishments, caused the outbreak.
“Several (customers) resorted to water delivery because of the high demand for water due to the increased visitor arrival in the city,” she said during the same briefing.
Brillantes said 12 deep wells were found to be positive for coliform or organisms that are present in the environment and feces of warm-blooded animals and humans.
She said further tests showed that seven of these deep wells had the presence of intestine-living Escherichia coli (E-coli), which is suspected to be due to run-off water contamination.
Baguio officials are waiting for the Department of Health-Epidemiology Bureau’s final bacteriological and virological reports, which they hope to receive by Friday, she added.
Local officials said reports about rising diarrhea cases started on Dec. 20, with the numbers peaking from Dec. 26 to Jan. 13, 2024.
Magalong said they have ordered operators of the deep wells and the water delivery services that caused the outbreak to cease operations for now.
“They cannot operate until they are cleared,” he said.
During the same event, Dr. Donnabel Panes, chief of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), said norovirus, a contagious virus, was found in at least 50 percent of the water samples as well as the stool samples from hospitalized patients that were tested by the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau.
She said secondary transmission came from infected people who prepared or handled food for their families — the reason many of the victims did not have a record of dining out.
Magalong underscored the need for stricter policies on bulk and potable water delivery services and a safe water ordinance amid the outbreak. (PNA)
Photo credit: Facebook/pio.baguio
