DAVAO CITY, Philippines – City health personnel are trekking the hinterlands to tract any case of filariasis, which has been declared controlled in the city.
The move was preemptive, to prevent its occurrence, the Department of Health said.
“The City Health Office does not stop on their campaign against filariasis, they go the hinterland and continuously give treatment to those who tested positive of filariasis,” Dr. Annabel Yumang, regional director of the DOH here, said.
The DOH declared Davao City this year as filariasis-free following its conduct of a filarial Transmission Assessment Survey.
Survey shows that there had been no single case recorded in Davao City for the whole year of 2018.
The City Health Office has continued to conduct awareness campaign on filariasis in the city.
“Due to the successful campaign of Davao City there was no recorded filarial case here last year. We awarded P1 million to the city government, which it can use for their program against filariasis,” Dr. Yumang said.
The city mayor Inday Sara Duterte said that the campaign of the City Health Office (CHO) against the infection had paid off.
The DOH said filariasis is a major parasite infection that affects mostly the poorest municipalities in the country. It remains a public health problem in the entire Philippines.(Mary Joy G. Alferez,HCDC intern/davaotoday.com)
