ZAMBOANGA CITY - The city government declared a gastroenteritis outbreak Tuesday caused by the deadly ‘norovirus’ which already claimed at least 5 lives here.
Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar signed an executive order on the outbreak declaration following the recommendation of City Health Officer Dr. Rodel Agbulos that cases have already exceeded alert and outbreak threshold from March 18 to April 21.
Agbulos explained that the two important bases for the recommendation of the declaration of the outbreak were from the number of cases presented in the locality and the fact that this is the first time norovirus cases have been documented in the city.
Salazar directed the local health officer and other concern agencies to institute, undertake and implement curative and proactive measures to effectively eradicate the outbreak.
Agbulos said the majority of those affected by the virus were the vulnerable group. He added that the disease has claimed five lives, and four of which were pediatric cases which had co-morbidities such as pneumonia and malnutrition.
The health officer said that based on the April 21 report from the City Health Office (CHO), there were 813 cases admitted to different hospitals in the city due to acute gastroenteritis (AGE).
However, the number has soared last Monday to 1,124 cases with majority of the cases affecting the vulnerable groups of 1 to 5-year-old bracket with 526 cases and the under 12 months bracket with 237 cases.
Agbulos said stool culture results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) revealed last week that viral infection, norovirus, a highly contagious virus, caused majority of the AGE cases in the city.
The CHO advised that proper hand washing and general hygiene are among the best measures to prevent the spread of norovirus.
Alcohols and alcogels should be used in tandem with hand washing. Soiled laundry and surfaces must immediately be washed and disinfected with 5-10 percent chlorine bleach solution, if possible.
Agbulos warned that the norovirus and AGE are now primarily transmitted through person-to-person contact.
According to the CHO report, the norovirus is highly contagious and spreads easily within the population.
While diarrhea caused by the norovirus clears up within 2-3 days, it can be particularly more severe on vulnerable populations, he said.
The infectious dose of the norovirus is 18 to 1,000 viral particles. A droplet of vomitus of an infected person has enough particles to infect at least 100,000 people.