Bacolod City – Negros Occidental, including highly urbanized Bacolod City, has logged 178 leptospirosis cases from January 1 to September 2 this year, including 26 deaths.
Of the fatalities, 12 are recorded in Bacolod City, while 14 in the province, records of the Provincial Health and City Health Offices indicated.
Negros Occidental had 111 leptospirosis cases, while Bacolod City logged 67.
According to the Department of Health, leptospirosis is caused by leptospira spirochetes that are acquired from infected urine or feces of animals such as rats that contaminate food, water, and soil.
Leptospirosis, according to DOH, tends to occur frequently in flooded urban cities.
Seventy percent of the cases were caused by exposure or contact with contaminated water or ground. The most common reason for complications and deaths are due to delayed health seeking behavior, and denial of leptospirosis infection, the report further indicated.
Murcia has the greatest number of deaths due leptospirosis cases following Bacolod City, at five, with two in Don Salvador Benedicto, and one each in the cities of Sagay, Sipalay, and Kabankalan, along with the municipalities of Hinigaran and Calatrava, PHO records further showed.
Twenty-eight out of 31 municipalities and component cities of Negros Occidental have at least one suspected case of leptospirosis.
PHO reports further indicated that seven persons also died of cholera, out of reported 65 cases, in Negros Occidental.
San Carlos City logged with highest number of cholera cases at 20.
Based on the CHO reports, cholera cases in Bacolod City rose by 204.5 percent, from 22 last year, with five deaths, compared to 169 cases this year, with seven deaths. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
