700,000 People in EV exposed to Schistosomiasis disease

More than 700,000 people in farming communities in Eastern Visayas region are exposed to schistosomiasis disease due to the absence of sanitary toilets, the health department said.

The Department of Health (DOH) regional schistosomiasis program manager Agnes Cuayzon, said that about 875 of the region’s 4,390 villages are classified as endemic to schistosomiasis, a chronic, parasitic disease caused by blood flukes.

The villages host 1,718 freshwater snail colonies. Residents are infected when the larval forms released by freshwater snails penetrate the skin during contact with infested water.

In 2013, at least 742,271 persons or 18 percent of the region’s estimated 4.13 million population are susceptible to the tropical disease.

In the national listings, four of the region’s six provinces such as Leyte (314,245), Northern Samar (186,187), Samar (95,003) and Eastern Samar (146,836) are categorized as high endemic areas. The number has been consistently increasing in the past four years.

The DOH said the absence of sanitary toilets has triggered the emergence of the said disease, adding that it is alarming because it is affecting not just the farmers and their families but as well as teachers and health workers deployed in rural communities.

The National Statistical Coordinating Board, in its monitoring report, said that as of 2011, 35 percent of the population in Eastern Visayas does not have toilet facilities. Samar had the highest rate of households without toilets at 51 percent.

Officials aim to reduce the affected areas by 2014 under the Millenium Development Goals.

However, the health department has no data on the number of persons infected with schistosomiasis but they claimed that there were mortalities due to the disease every year.

“The focus is massive treatment to protect exposed population from severe consequences of schistosomiasis. We have been reducing disease through periodic, large-scale population treatment with praziquantel,” Cuayzon said.

In November 2012, the national government allotted P3.04 million for the procurement of praziquantel, the only drug used to treat schistosomiasis in the region.

DOH assistant regional schistosomiasis program manager Sonia Margallo said the drug is free but residents still resist because they fear of the side effects.

“The target is to treat at least 85 percent of exposed population but last year we only achieved 56 percent because of the low level of acceptance,” Margallo said.

The first epidemic of schistosomiasis in the region occurred among Americans and allied forces after landing in Leyte during World War II in 1944.

The most common symptoms of the disease are abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood in the stool and liver enlargement.