The Davao City Health Office (CHO) cited unhygienic street food as the cause of the diarrhea outbreak in Toril District, resulting in 217 individuals getting hospitalized.
CHO Head Dr. Ashley Lopez said in a radio interview on Friday morning, July 29, that based on the result of the rectal swab, the outbreak was caused by “food-borne microorganism with vibrio cholera as the pathogen of concern.”
“The most likely vehicle of transmission is not water, but rather contaminated food,” Lopez said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
The health official said that based on the investigation, food may have been contaminated during preparation, and handled by an infected handler.
He said the sources of infection were tapioca drink and street food, particularly isaw (grilled chicken entrails), kwek-kwek (fried orange-battered eggs), and juice, sold at the night market on Rasay Street and Toril Public Market.
He added the tapioca drink was the primary cause of infection, and most of the critical cases had taken it.
“Home-cooked food and handwashing are still the best way to prevent food-borne illnesses and seeking early medical care most especially if you have had your third episode of acute watery diarrhea, and this is the best way to prevent severe complications and death,” he said.
With this, health authorities have ruled out water-borne bacteria as the cause of the outbreak since an examination conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) showed samples taken from distribution pipes of Davao City Water District (DCWD) tested negative for bacterial contamination.
He said water supplied by DCWD is clean and safe as shown by the results of the two tests conducted by the utility. Despite this, he still recommends boiling the water at least 10 minutes before using it for drinking or for food.
Also, based on their investigation, Lopez said it was found that 41 percent of the affected cases had eaten at the night market, 21 percent at the public market, and 38 percent from multiple sources.
As of July 28, Lopez said that out of the 217 total cases, 48 are still active cases, while 163 have already recovered, and six succumbed to diarrhea.
Lopez said the latest death was a 27-year-old male who died last July 15 due to cardiopulmonary arrest secondary to severe dehydration.
The patient had previously manifested signs and symptoms, however, his health worsened, and he died upon admission.
Lopez said they have not received reports of admission and outpatients related to the outbreak for the past four days. With this, the official said the outbreak has been contained.
A day before, Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte led the coordination meeting on the Diarrhea Outbreak in Toril on Thursday afternoon, July 28, at the City Mayor’s Conference Room.
During the meeting, the Department of Health (DOH)-Epidemiology Bureau and CHO presented to the mayor the comprehensive report regarding the diarrhea outbreak.
Following the incident, Lopez said they will be laying additional plans to prevent a similar incident from happening in the city.
“Rest assured we have reached from very, very serious realization about this incident, especially the deaths. That’s why naa ta’y mga plans na ginahimo (We made plans) in preparation of this kind of incident,” the health official said.
In a recent ambush interview with SunStar Davao, Lopez said he is considering requiring ambulant or street vendors to present health certificates upon processing permits to prevent a similar incident.
“Atong ma-providan gyud nato sila og kanang unsa mga precautions, health information, unsay dapat himoon or dili, especially on food handling [and] preparation kay diha man gud ang culprit sa mga infections ug contamination (We will put in place precautionary measures like health information or how to handle and prepare food because we are seeing that mishandling of food could be the cause of infections or contaminations),” Lopez said. RGL