DOH Regional Office Declares Southern Leyte As Filariasis-Free

Jan. 29,2010
DOH Regional Office Declares Southern Leyte As Filariasis-Free
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-The Dept. of Health, regional office in Tacloban City, has recently declared the province of Southern Leyte as filariasis-free after the continual seven years (2000-2007) preventive annual mass treatment was completed in the entire province led by Rural Health Unit physician Dr. Francelisa I. Tan.
Dr. Noel Lumen, IPHO’s Provincial Health Officer 2 disclosed that before the DOH-RO’s aforesaid declaration, a Regional Filariasis Team has conducted another random blood sampling extractions preferably to a total of 3,000 children ages from 6 to 7 years old in various municipalities of the province in May 2008.This is to see if there’s still a positive indication of the dreaded disease. Those children subjected to the random blood samplings were living in areas where their elders were the first to undergone similar blood sampling for laboratory exams. The Regional Filariasis team, however, found the blood smear examinations from the children to be negative.
When queried why the Regional Filariasis Team has preferred to extract blood samplings from the children instead of the adults, Lumen quoting the DOH-RO FT statement, explained:”At the start of the seven-year duration of preventive mass treatment of filariasis in Maasin and in the entire province, these children (referring to those subjected to random blood samplings) were still 1 to 2 years old, whose age are susceptible to filariasis infection. The negative result of blood smears laboratory examination means that the conduct of yearly filariasis mass treatment was effective.However, there’s still the need for the people in the endemic areas to be alert about the disease.”
Blood Samplings
Earlier,Dr. Tan disclosed that Maasin was chosen in 1999 as the pilot area for the detection on the existence of filariasis disease. She said the local filariasis team chose to take blood samples of barangay folks whose areas were found to have abaca and banana plantations..
The physician revealed that blood smears from some chosen barangay inhabitants, were preferably taken during the night time because filariasis parasitic worms were clearly visible in blood. “WE choose to take blood samples of folks during the night because the blood contents more oxygen at this period than in daytime”, she unfolded. “Daytime blood examination will not reveal the presence of filariasis”, she said.
Barangays involved in the program included Matin-ao, Gawisan and some of Maasin’s neighboring hinterland barangays that have some abaca, banana, gabi and pandan plantations.
Mass Treatment
Provincial Filariasis Coordinator Celestial Francisco Plateros, Medtech 3 of the Integrated Health Provincial Office (IPHO) intimated that in 2000, after the blood samples were found to be positive of the thread-like parasitic worms, mass treatment was conducted in the entire province until the end of 2007.
Although in the blood examination there was only less than 15 percent that were infliction with filariasis, it was learned, the coverage of treatment was the entirety of a certain municipality and the province.
Plateros explained that whether filariasis infection in a certain barangay or barangays were above or less than what they’ve expected, the entire population of all barangays under a municipality will undergo mass treatment.
Likewise, if one municipality in a certain province like Southern Leyte has a manifestation of filariasis infection, the whole province will also undergo mass filariasis treatment.
The IPHO Medtech said that the abovementioned plants were the habitat of the filariasis-carrier mosquitoes called aedes poicillius.These night-biting mosquitoes, she said, will be transmitting the thread-like filariasis parasitic worms to its victims during the night to those whom they’ve bitten.
She advised that as a form of prevention, people living in the areas where there are abacas,bananas,gabi and pandan plantations, must start wearing long pants and long sleeves shirts at 5:00 p.m. and to use mosquito nets and insect repellants during sleeping time.
Endemic Disease
Dr. Lumen also divulged that filariasis is endemic in Southern Leyte, Davao, Bukidnon, Sorsogon, Bicol and in some regions, affecting more than 50% of the country’s provinces. It was learned that filariasis known as “Elephantiasis” is a chronic parasitic infection that put at risk more than One Million people in 73 countries including the Philippines. The disease is caused by thread-like parasitic filarial worms, which lodge in the nodes and vessels of the lymphatic system. These worms live for about 10 years producing millions of immature microfilariae that circulate in the blood.
Plateros explained that the convergence of filarial parasitic worms in the lymphatic system have served as a blockade in the normal circulation of the blood, the reason why some people’s legs and other parts of their bodies afflicted by filariasis were having an edema or abnormal growth.
Symptoms
Some early symptoms of filariasis disease are fever, chylous urine (buot ipasabot pariho sa kolor sa kinilis sa bugas), headache. For those who have advanced infection of filariasis are edemas either in feet, legs, hands, arms, and the genital organs of both male and female.


Treatment
According to our source the mode of treatment for those who were afflicted with filariasis is a regular taking of two kinds of medicines (Diethyl Carbamazine and Abbendazale) for 2 weeks or more, depending upon the condition of patients. Aside from this process,re-examination of the patients’ blood smears are also to be conducted to see if these patients still need further treatment for complete healing. Nevertheless, the formation of the patients’ deformities on different parts of their bodies can no longer be vanished and will remain as the patients’indeligible stigmatic mark, except perhaps by some kind of operations.
Nonetheless, people afflicted with filariasis should avoid taking the aforesaid medicines for self-medication. They should first consult a physician in their respective places for the right doses to take as the prerequisite for effective and proper treatment.
Origin
Plateros further divulged that according to information that she has gathered the thread-like parasitic filarial worms are found in some animals in Africa, where the disease was first discovered and spread to other countries “When the mosquitoes like aedes poicillius will bite infected animals or persons with filariasis, it becomes its carrier and would be transmitted to some people who will be bitten by them, thus there’s an inevitable spread of the disease”, she added.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)