Task force vs. filariasis mulled
The Iloilo provincial board on Tuesday passed a resolution asking Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas Sr. to create a provincial task force to oversee a campaign to prevent the possible spread of the mosquito-borne disease filariasis.
The board also urged the formation of municipal task forces that will help mass administration of drugs to combat the disease.
The province is categorized as a new endemic province with moderate rate of infection at 5.18 percent, according to provincial health officer Dr. Patricia Grace Trabado.
Iloilo is among the 39 provinces with endemic filariasis.
Trabado said mild infection levels covers from 1 percent to 4 percent while moderate level is at 5-10 percent. Severe level is for areas with cases more than 10 percent.
The campaign for mass drug administration targets 85 percent of the population of the province.
Filariasis is caused by microfilaria worms transmitted by mosquitoes, usually at night. The worms attack a person's lymphatic nodes causing hardening and enlargement of tissues and organs.
The worm-carrying mosquitoes can usually be found in leaves and branches of plants including banana trees and abaca.
There is no visible symptom of the infection immediately after it is acquired and can only be detected through blood smearing. It takes from a year to six years before the visible symptoms of the disease to develop, said Trabado in an earlier interview.
Persons afflicted with the disease first experience repeated fever, chills headache. In the advanced stage, infected persons suffer enlargement of the extremities including swelling of the testicles for males and breasts for females. Infected persons are treated with dosages of macrofilariacide and macrofilariacide.
Cases of the disease were detected in the province in March this year after a survey for possible symptoms of the disease and subsequent blood samplings showed possible infection in villages in Lambunao town in Iloilo.
Twenty six of the 501 blood samples taken were found positive for the disease, according to data from the provincial health office.
Health officials have advised residents to take precautionary measures against the disease by cleaning possible breeding grounds of mosquitoes and minimizing exposure to mosquito bites.