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Viral diseases after flood kill above 150 in Philippine
Philippine:- The death toll of those who died in Philippine due to viral diseases after the sea storm has crossed the 150 while thousands others include in the affectees. Many areas are still inundated in the country.
The patients had no clue what hit them. They were wading in flood waters during Typhoon Ketsana; and some days later, they suffered excruciating pain and could not urinate. Some could hardly breathe and were coughing blood. Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection caused by exposure to the excretion of rats, cats, dogs and other animals. The bacteria are common in tropical countries with heavy rainfall and frequent flooding. Leptospirosis attacks the muscles, causing extreme pain. It can adversely affect the brain, lungs, kidney or liver. Symptoms include stiffening of the neck, bloody phlegm, yellowing of the skin and eyes, and scant, tea-colored urine.
Three weeks after typhoon Ketsana, wide areas have remained flooded in and around Manila, causing a surge in cases of fatal leptospirosis in poor communities, health officials said. More than 150 people had died and nearly 2,000 leptospirosis patients remained in hospitals. Residents in flooded areas dismissed their athlete’s foot and open wounds, unaware that a deadly disease was lurking in the flood waters.
About 1.7 million Filipinos are at risk of leptospirosis, prompting the health department to issue profilaxes in flood-affected communities to prevent its spread. As flood waters in many communities have not receded, health officials are expecting more cases of leptospirosis and other flood water-borne diseases like cholera and typhoid, the health secretary said. Flood waters in Manila and the nearby provinces of Laguna and Rizal are expected to remain until December.
Health authorities sought the help of the international community on Wednesday (October 21), to contain the unprecedented outbreak. The health department said they needed close to $1 million U.S. dollars worth of medicines to contain the disease.
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