Diarrhea downs 314 people in NCotabato

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Local health authorities confirmed on Saturday a diarrhea outbreak in a North Cotabato town, but the Department of Health assured there are enough medicines to treat the affected residents. The DOH reported 314 diarrhea cases as of Saturday, from the 209 recorded earlier. The additional 105 cases, it said, came from Barangay Poblacion in President Roxas town. Health officials believe residents consumed contaminated water from the Noah and Greenhills reservoirs of the town's local water utility. Pipelines connecting the reservoirs and the households might have leaked, leading to contamination, municipal health officer Dr. Dominic Laos said. But Laos could not confirm the cause of the outbreak as results from laboratory tests are yet to come out. He noted, however, that residents of two other villages (Labu-o and Mabuhay) who also get their water source from the same reservoirs have not reported any diarrhea case yet. Meanwhile, the local health department distributed 120 boxes of medicine and 1,000 packs of oral rehydration solution to the affected residents. “We have sufficient supply of antibiotics and oresol. These are enough to contain the illness especially in Poblacion," Laos said. Laos also appealed to the locals to boil their drinking water to avoid contacting bacteria. —LBG, GMANews.TV