By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Department of Health (DOH) Epidemiology Bureau confirmed yesterday that the outbreak, which placed Negros Occidental’s San Carlos City into a state of health emergency last month, was caused by cholera, and not amoebiasis.

Joe Alingasa Jr., San Carlos City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office head, said seven of the 22 specimens sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine have tested positive for vibrio cholerae.

Alingasa said some medical staff from DOH had some doubts whether it was really amoeba.

They decided to perform rectal swabbing on some of the patients for analysis.

He said if it was amoeba then the cases should be clustered in one sitio only. However, it spread to 18 barangays in the city.

Currently, the number of gastroenteritis cases in the city has already dropped, but a 54-year-old person reportedly died due to a waterborne disease last week.

The city has also yet to identify as to where the contamination came from. They have a weekly monitoring of all water refilling stations in the city.

The San Carlos City Waterworks Department is also carrying out chlorination of their water sources to kill off bacteria that could cause gastrointestinal problems.

In February, the DOH Central Office sent a team to San Carlos City to assist in controlling the rising number of gastrointestinal-related diseases in the city.

Mayor Renato Gustilo said there were lapses in the reporting of cases by the City Health Office.

He could have declared a health emergency much earlier if he had received a proper report./DGB, WDJ