By MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City — A city councilor here urged the City Health Office (CHO) to hold a massive information campaign on leptospirosis.
A resident of Barangay Sum-ag here died of the disease early this month.
“The city (government) should be proactive in dealing with this kind of health challenge,” said Councilor Em Ang.
It must act, through the CHO, before leptospirosis becomes a major problem here, she stressed.
Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects both humans and animals.
Humans get infected through direct contact with urine of infected animals or a urine-contaminated environment.
Its symptoms include high fever, severe headache, muscle pain, chills, redness of the eyes, abdominal pain, jaundice, hemorrhages in the skin and mucous membranes, vomiting, diarrhea, and rashes.
Contrary to reports that there were two leptospirosis fatalities here early this month, only Danilo Epacta, 48, of Barangay Sum-ag succumbed to the disease, the CHO said.
Epacta had been reportedly poisoning rats in their house in the last week of July.
He may have been infected while cleaning up their house with an open wound on his left foot, reports said.
The area where they live gets flooded whenever it rains due to a defective drainage system.
Ang chairs the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on family and child care and development./PN
