Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
No rescue for bullheaded Mayon residents—Salceda
By Rey M. Nasol, Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 18:17:00 12/24/2009
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Albay officials on Thursday warned villagers no one would come to help them if they refused to evacuate and Mayon Volcano erupts violently
But hold-outs—residents who continue to resist government’s evacuation orders—said they preferred to spend Christmas in their homes than in evacuation centers.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda issued the warning as troops searched villages in danger zones for the hard-headed residents amid threats of a major eruption by the most active volcano in the Philippines.
"If you are there, you die there. There is no way of rescuing people (if) rescuers would also be killed," Salceda said in a press briefing.
In yet another frightening display of its power, Mayon boomed 124 times over a 24-hour period, while belching ash columns towering 1.2 kilometers over its summit, higher than its previous ejections.
But hundreds of villagers still ignored government appeals for them to evacuate.
"After field validation, 179 more families are still within the danger zones. This excludes those who have returned without our knowledge," said Salceda, chair of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.
Officials recalled 77 farmers and thousands of animals were burned to death by volcanic materials in Bonga, Buyuan and Mabinit villages in this city during a series of Mayon eruptions from February to April in 1993.
Despite more frequent explosions and President Macapagal-Arroyo's order for forced evacuation, some residents within the 8-km extended danger zone would rather take their chances than leave their possessions and their animals behind.
"We have lived here for a long time, we know the volcano. We'd rather spend Christmas here than in the crowded evacuation centers," said Cris Mendioro, 34, of Barangay Matanag.
Mendioro, whose house is just a few meters from an Army checkpoint, said he and the others had packed their belongings and were ready to leave should the volcano erupt.
Volcanologists have placed Mayon—which began spewing ash on Dec. 14—under alert level 4, meaning a hazardous blast could occur within hours or days. The highest alert, level 5, means a major eruption is underway.
Aside from Mayon’s productive soil, cattle, crops, attachment to pets, like dogs, drive villagers to risk their lives and stay in their residences instead of living in crowded evacuation sites.
"We are already listed at the evacuation center in Barangay San Roque but heads of families, like me, come back to feed the pigs and pets," Arnulfo Marcellana, 43, of Barangay Mabinit, told the INQUIRER Thursday morning during the forced evacuation.
"The dogs are pitiful to hear every time we return here. They wail in hunger. If only they (disaster officials) will assure us that they will feed our animals, things would be much easier for us," the father of three added.
On one of his returns, Marcellana decided to just untie his 4-month-old pig so that it could look for its own food.
"I just hope it is still there when we are allowed to finally go back," he said. "Imagine if their cries could be heard at the evacuation center, we would wonder if our pets and animals were finding anything to eat."
Marcellana said the thought kept bothering him and his family now that they had decided to heed warnings not to return home just yet.
Luis Esquivel, also of Mabini and a relative of some of the farmers killed in the 1993 eruption, said that although he had kept coming back to his village, he could not sleep.
He said he was always on the alert, closely watching Mayon’s crater while he tended his crops.
"I have my motorcycle always with me for a quick escape," Esquivel said. "I am used to this. I have experienced these things six times in my life since childhood."
He added: "What we are afraid of is the 'uson' (pyroclastic flows), which killed farmers here."
In the adjacent Barangay Bonga, 8 km from Mayon's crater, hundreds of people still roamed the streets as if things were normal.
"Barangay Bonga will be our next target for the forced evacuation simultaneously with other areas in the northern and eastern side of Mayon," said Capt. Razaleigh G. Bansawan, 901st Infantry Brigade and Task Force Mayon spokesperson.
Mila Atun, 45, mother of 6, said she came back to get firewood and kitchen utensils, and also to fetch Mariel Alaurin, an 8-year-old neighbor left behind by her parents, who are now at a evacuation center in Gogon Elementary School.
Alaurin, in tears, said her father was working in the rice field when he was taken to the evacuation center. The girl was left home alone.
Atun said: "We have gotten used to this kind of situation—evacuating even if we are safe here."
A man who refused to give his name said his family was already in the evacuation center and that no one was left, except him, to look after their carabao, cows, goats and crops. He said he still has not decided whether to leave Barangay Bonga.
As early as 5 a.m. Thursday, Task Force Mayon, the Commission on Human Rights and local government units began implementing Ms Arroyo’s order for forced evacuation.
"A platoon of soldiers from the task force and CHR-Bicol and three military vehicles were sent to the villages within the 6-8-kilometer danger zones to enforce the directive," Bansawan said during the conduct of the forced evacuation at Barangay Mabinit here.
Bansawan also said that a team from the Albay Health and Emergency Management was also requested to attend to incapacitated persons that would be found in the area.
The directive was also issued to all the units manning the checkpoints along the 8-km danger zones to strictly enforce the no-entry policy at the areas.
"As soon as the mission is 100 percent completed, all road networks to the restricted areas will be sealed off," Bansawan said.
Col. Marlou Salazar, commanding officer of the 901st Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army, briefed the enforcing elements on the rights of the people and their remaining responsibilities after all the people have been forcibly taken out of the danger zones.
"They will have to patrol the area against thieves as the residents opted to leave some of their belongings, some animals like pigs and their pets," Salazar said.
"Forcible evacuation has been ordered, no more exceptions and operations have commenced," Salceda said, adding
"We have patiently explored and employed all means, all ways, all sorts just to get the 10,000 families out of danger and keep within CHR guidance. We could have completed the task in one day instead of nine days but did not due to 179 families still out there, excluding those who have returned without letting us know."
He said dogs would be evacuated as well as the villagers' cattle, carabaos, pigs and pets and be given corresponding feeds for free at their designated evacuation centers in the Albay Breeding Station in Camalig, in Barangay Paraputo in Tabaco City, in Mauraro in Guinobatan and in Bogtong, this city as identified by the Provincial Veterinary Services Office.
Salceda added that the Department of Agriculture Bicol regional office had also provided P15 million fund for post-calamity and rehabilitation activities.
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 18:17:00 12/24/2009
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Albay officials on Thursday warned villagers no one would come to help them if they refused to evacuate and Mayon Volcano erupts violently
But hold-outs—residents who continue to resist government’s evacuation orders—said they preferred to spend Christmas in their homes than in evacuation centers.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda issued the warning as troops searched villages in danger zones for the hard-headed residents amid threats of a major eruption by the most active volcano in the Philippines.
"If you are there, you die there. There is no way of rescuing people (if) rescuers would also be killed," Salceda said in a press briefing.
In yet another frightening display of its power, Mayon boomed 124 times over a 24-hour period, while belching ash columns towering 1.2 kilometers over its summit, higher than its previous ejections.
But hundreds of villagers still ignored government appeals for them to evacuate.
"After field validation, 179 more families are still within the danger zones. This excludes those who have returned without our knowledge," said Salceda, chair of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.
Officials recalled 77 farmers and thousands of animals were burned to death by volcanic materials in Bonga, Buyuan and Mabinit villages in this city during a series of Mayon eruptions from February to April in 1993.
Despite more frequent explosions and President Macapagal-Arroyo's order for forced evacuation, some residents within the 8-km extended danger zone would rather take their chances than leave their possessions and their animals behind.
"We have lived here for a long time, we know the volcano. We'd rather spend Christmas here than in the crowded evacuation centers," said Cris Mendioro, 34, of Barangay Matanag.
Mendioro, whose house is just a few meters from an Army checkpoint, said he and the others had packed their belongings and were ready to leave should the volcano erupt.
Volcanologists have placed Mayon—which began spewing ash on Dec. 14—under alert level 4, meaning a hazardous blast could occur within hours or days. The highest alert, level 5, means a major eruption is underway.
Aside from Mayon’s productive soil, cattle, crops, attachment to pets, like dogs, drive villagers to risk their lives and stay in their residences instead of living in crowded evacuation sites.
"We are already listed at the evacuation center in Barangay San Roque but heads of families, like me, come back to feed the pigs and pets," Arnulfo Marcellana, 43, of Barangay Mabinit, told the INQUIRER Thursday morning during the forced evacuation.
"The dogs are pitiful to hear every time we return here. They wail in hunger. If only they (disaster officials) will assure us that they will feed our animals, things would be much easier for us," the father of three added.
On one of his returns, Marcellana decided to just untie his 4-month-old pig so that it could look for its own food.
"I just hope it is still there when we are allowed to finally go back," he said. "Imagine if their cries could be heard at the evacuation center, we would wonder if our pets and animals were finding anything to eat."
Marcellana said the thought kept bothering him and his family now that they had decided to heed warnings not to return home just yet.
Luis Esquivel, also of Mabini and a relative of some of the farmers killed in the 1993 eruption, said that although he had kept coming back to his village, he could not sleep.
He said he was always on the alert, closely watching Mayon’s crater while he tended his crops.
"I have my motorcycle always with me for a quick escape," Esquivel said. "I am used to this. I have experienced these things six times in my life since childhood."
He added: "What we are afraid of is the 'uson' (pyroclastic flows), which killed farmers here."
In the adjacent Barangay Bonga, 8 km from Mayon's crater, hundreds of people still roamed the streets as if things were normal.
"Barangay Bonga will be our next target for the forced evacuation simultaneously with other areas in the northern and eastern side of Mayon," said Capt. Razaleigh G. Bansawan, 901st Infantry Brigade and Task Force Mayon spokesperson.
Mila Atun, 45, mother of 6, said she came back to get firewood and kitchen utensils, and also to fetch Mariel Alaurin, an 8-year-old neighbor left behind by her parents, who are now at a evacuation center in Gogon Elementary School.
Alaurin, in tears, said her father was working in the rice field when he was taken to the evacuation center. The girl was left home alone.
Atun said: "We have gotten used to this kind of situation—evacuating even if we are safe here."
A man who refused to give his name said his family was already in the evacuation center and that no one was left, except him, to look after their carabao, cows, goats and crops. He said he still has not decided whether to leave Barangay Bonga.
As early as 5 a.m. Thursday, Task Force Mayon, the Commission on Human Rights and local government units began implementing Ms Arroyo’s order for forced evacuation.
"A platoon of soldiers from the task force and CHR-Bicol and three military vehicles were sent to the villages within the 6-8-kilometer danger zones to enforce the directive," Bansawan said during the conduct of the forced evacuation at Barangay Mabinit here.
Bansawan also said that a team from the Albay Health and Emergency Management was also requested to attend to incapacitated persons that would be found in the area.
The directive was also issued to all the units manning the checkpoints along the 8-km danger zones to strictly enforce the no-entry policy at the areas.
"As soon as the mission is 100 percent completed, all road networks to the restricted areas will be sealed off," Bansawan said.
Col. Marlou Salazar, commanding officer of the 901st Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army, briefed the enforcing elements on the rights of the people and their remaining responsibilities after all the people have been forcibly taken out of the danger zones.
"They will have to patrol the area against thieves as the residents opted to leave some of their belongings, some animals like pigs and their pets," Salazar said.
"Forcible evacuation has been ordered, no more exceptions and operations have commenced," Salceda said, adding
"We have patiently explored and employed all means, all ways, all sorts just to get the 10,000 families out of danger and keep within CHR guidance. We could have completed the task in one day instead of nine days but did not due to 179 families still out there, excluding those who have returned without letting us know."
He said dogs would be evacuated as well as the villagers' cattle, carabaos, pigs and pets and be given corresponding feeds for free at their designated evacuation centers in the Albay Breeding Station in Camalig, in Barangay Paraputo in Tabaco City, in Mauraro in Guinobatan and in Bogtong, this city as identified by the Provincial Veterinary Services Office.
Salceda added that the Department of Agriculture Bicol regional office had also provided P15 million fund for post-calamity and rehabilitation activities.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Villagers lose sleep over Mayon, evacuation
(Page A16)
LEGAZPI CITY—VILLAGERS near Mayon are losing sleep over two things—the volcano’s continued rumbling and soldiers on patrol enforcing orders to forcibly move people out of harm’s way.
Josie Perez, 41, knows how it is to spend sleepless nights. She sneaked back into her house in Barangay Mabinit here to escape an evacuation center that was getting more crowded as Mayon kept sending signs of a major eruption.
Loud rumbling from the volcano kept her awake all night. It didn’t help that the roof of her house shook each time.
At each rumbling, she would go out to look at Mayon. “Its glow has become more intense,” she said.
Evacuees, she said, sneak back into their homes near or inside the danger zones during the day to do three things—wash clothes, gather firewood and feed the animals.
Denver Balenzuela, 3, was in Barangay Matnog in Daraga town at dusk while the rest of the village sat empty like a ghost town after forced evacuation.
Teresita Poquilla, 55, the boy’s grandmother, said they spent the night in their house despite the danger because her grandson refused to use toilets at the evacuation center.
“When the Army went around last night, we turned our lights off for fear that they might force us to go back to the shelters,” Poquilla said.
She recalled seeing a neighbor, a paralytic, being carried away by soldiers.
Poquilla said she and her grandson leaves the evacuation center at 6 a.m. and returns at 4 p.m.
On Monday, they stayed home but rumbling sound from Mayon kept her awake. It sounded, she said, “like rocks chasing one another.”
The absence of a lava fountain despite the raising of the alert level to 4, she said, was what worried her.
“There seems to be a blockage inside the volcano,” she said.
Conrado Nuñez, 71, of Barangay Mabinit, has seen seven previous eruptions.
He sat at the door of his house in the village, keeping watch while his family stayed at the evacuation center in San Roque Elementary School.
If there was something that the villagers fear most, he said, it was what they call uson, a local term for the flow of pyroclastic materials.
Nuñez has learned one lesson in the 1993 eruption—nothing, not even his farm, was worth his life. “We don’t have second lives,” he said. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
LEGAZPI CITY—VILLAGERS near Mayon are losing sleep over two things—the volcano’s continued rumbling and soldiers on patrol enforcing orders to forcibly move people out of harm’s way.
Josie Perez, 41, knows how it is to spend sleepless nights. She sneaked back into her house in Barangay Mabinit here to escape an evacuation center that was getting more crowded as Mayon kept sending signs of a major eruption.
Loud rumbling from the volcano kept her awake all night. It didn’t help that the roof of her house shook each time.
At each rumbling, she would go out to look at Mayon. “Its glow has become more intense,” she said.
Evacuees, she said, sneak back into their homes near or inside the danger zones during the day to do three things—wash clothes, gather firewood and feed the animals.
Denver Balenzuela, 3, was in Barangay Matnog in Daraga town at dusk while the rest of the village sat empty like a ghost town after forced evacuation.
Teresita Poquilla, 55, the boy’s grandmother, said they spent the night in their house despite the danger because her grandson refused to use toilets at the evacuation center.
“When the Army went around last night, we turned our lights off for fear that they might force us to go back to the shelters,” Poquilla said.
She recalled seeing a neighbor, a paralytic, being carried away by soldiers.
Poquilla said she and her grandson leaves the evacuation center at 6 a.m. and returns at 4 p.m.
On Monday, they stayed home but rumbling sound from Mayon kept her awake. It sounded, she said, “like rocks chasing one another.”
The absence of a lava fountain despite the raising of the alert level to 4, she said, was what worried her.
“There seems to be a blockage inside the volcano,” she said.
Conrado Nuñez, 71, of Barangay Mabinit, has seen seven previous eruptions.
He sat at the door of his house in the village, keeping watch while his family stayed at the evacuation center in San Roque Elementary School.
If there was something that the villagers fear most, he said, it was what they call uson, a local term for the flow of pyroclastic materials.
Nuñez has learned one lesson in the 1993 eruption—nothing, not even his farm, was worth his life. “We don’t have second lives,” he said. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Dark Christmas for fleeing Mayon folk
By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY—Albay officials have begun moving thousands of villagers out of harm’s way near Mayon Volcano after it oozed lava and shot plumes of ash late Monday.
Officials said the villagers would probably spend a bleak Christmas in an evacuation center.
Government volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped, 2,460-meter volcano overnight to two steps below eruption after ash explosions and dark orange lava fragments glowing in the dark trickled down the mountain slope.
Nearly 50,000 people live in the “hazard areas” within an eight-kilometer radius around Mayon, and authorities were ordering them to leave in case the volcano erupts, Gov. Joey Salceda said.
In Barangay Matanag, the first batch of evacuees, made up mostly of women, children and the elderly, boarded a police truck at 3 p.m. Tuesday. They clutched luggage, plastic bottles of water, mats, pillows, blankets, firewood and kitchenware
“We cannot disobey this order. We are one with the provincial government’s zero-casualty goal,” said Bienvenido Belga Sr., the barangay captain.
20,000 evacuated
‘As of 6 Tuesday night, 4,552 families or over 20,000 people had been evacuated, officials said.
Salceda said he decided to cancel a trip to Copenhagen, where he was to attend a UN climate conference to discuss his province’s experience with typhoons and other natural disasters.
He said he would appeal for foreign aid to deal with the expected influx of displaced villagers into emergency shelters.
The first of 20 vehicles, including Army trucks, were sent to villages to take residents to schools and other temporary housing, according to Juke Nuñez, a provincial emergency management official.
“It’s 10 days before Christmas. Most likely people will be in evacuation centers, and if Mayon’s activity won’t ease down we will not allow them to return to their homes,” Nuñez said. “It’s difficult and sad, especially for children.”
Worsening state
Magma had been rising in the volcano over the past two weeks and began to ooze out of its crater on Monday night, but it could get worse in coming days, said Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
“Now lava is trickling down, but if the ascent of magma is sustained there will be lava flows,” Solidum said. “There is also the possibility of an explosion.”
Belga said 362 families in Matanag had to be evacuated to the Albay Central School in the city.
The villagers hardly slept since Monday night. “Everyone is anxious about the volcano,” Belga told the Inquirer.
Most people are afraid of Mayon, which brought tragedies in the past, Belga said. In 1993, the volcano erupted and killed more than 70 people.
Belga said barangay officials had been making the rounds overnight to warn people through a megaphone to stay alert because the volcano could erupt anytime.
The order to evacuate came the next day, Belga said.
Early preparations
Melyn Lascano, 43, said her family had packed their belongings as early as August when the volcano was showing signs of unrest.
“It’s better to always be prepared because Mayon these days is so uncertain,” she said.
Aside from clothes, the Lascanos brought with them food and cooking utensils.
“We were told that relief goods will not yet be distributed tonight (Tuesday) so we made sure we would have something to eat until tomorrow morning,” Lascano said in Bicol.
Adelina Atun, 60, knew as early as Sunday that she and her two children were likely to be evacuated.
Mayon’s rumblings have become louder, Atun said. “Sometimes, the volcano would sound like an airplane,” she said, adding that the intense crater glow would make her feel nervous.
Atun’s husband, however, like most of the menfolk in the village, was left to guard the family’s property and farm animals.
When the first batch of evacuees from Matanag arrived at Albay Central School, the classrooms had already been emptied.
10 families in 1 classroom
The school will also accommodate 362 families from the village and 84 more from Barangay Padang, said Evelyn Bachiller, assistant camp chief.
Ten families, regardless of size, will share one classroom and comfort room.
Bachiller said there were not enough water sources in the school grounds. “We only have one water pump available because the rest had been stolen. But we expect the city government to set up water stations soon,” she said.
Some classes were suspended indefinitely near the danger zone. Officials will find a way to squeeze in classes in school buildings to be used as shelters, Salceda said.
About 30,000 people were moved when Mayon last erupted in 2006. Typhoon-triggered mudslides near the mountain later that year buried entire villages, killing more than 1,000 people.
Most violent eruption
Mayon’s most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried a town in mud. A 1993 eruption killed 79 people.
The Philippines lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common. Twenty-two out of 37 volcanoes in the archipelago are active. With reports from Alcuin Papa in Manila and Associated Press
Inquirer Southern Luzon
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY—Albay officials have begun moving thousands of villagers out of harm’s way near Mayon Volcano after it oozed lava and shot plumes of ash late Monday.
Officials said the villagers would probably spend a bleak Christmas in an evacuation center.
Government volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped, 2,460-meter volcano overnight to two steps below eruption after ash explosions and dark orange lava fragments glowing in the dark trickled down the mountain slope.
Nearly 50,000 people live in the “hazard areas” within an eight-kilometer radius around Mayon, and authorities were ordering them to leave in case the volcano erupts, Gov. Joey Salceda said.
In Barangay Matanag, the first batch of evacuees, made up mostly of women, children and the elderly, boarded a police truck at 3 p.m. Tuesday. They clutched luggage, plastic bottles of water, mats, pillows, blankets, firewood and kitchenware
“We cannot disobey this order. We are one with the provincial government’s zero-casualty goal,” said Bienvenido Belga Sr., the barangay captain.
20,000 evacuated
‘As of 6 Tuesday night, 4,552 families or over 20,000 people had been evacuated, officials said.
Salceda said he decided to cancel a trip to Copenhagen, where he was to attend a UN climate conference to discuss his province’s experience with typhoons and other natural disasters.
He said he would appeal for foreign aid to deal with the expected influx of displaced villagers into emergency shelters.
The first of 20 vehicles, including Army trucks, were sent to villages to take residents to schools and other temporary housing, according to Juke Nuñez, a provincial emergency management official.
“It’s 10 days before Christmas. Most likely people will be in evacuation centers, and if Mayon’s activity won’t ease down we will not allow them to return to their homes,” Nuñez said. “It’s difficult and sad, especially for children.”
Worsening state
Magma had been rising in the volcano over the past two weeks and began to ooze out of its crater on Monday night, but it could get worse in coming days, said Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
“Now lava is trickling down, but if the ascent of magma is sustained there will be lava flows,” Solidum said. “There is also the possibility of an explosion.”
Belga said 362 families in Matanag had to be evacuated to the Albay Central School in the city.
The villagers hardly slept since Monday night. “Everyone is anxious about the volcano,” Belga told the Inquirer.
Most people are afraid of Mayon, which brought tragedies in the past, Belga said. In 1993, the volcano erupted and killed more than 70 people.
Belga said barangay officials had been making the rounds overnight to warn people through a megaphone to stay alert because the volcano could erupt anytime.
The order to evacuate came the next day, Belga said.
Early preparations
Melyn Lascano, 43, said her family had packed their belongings as early as August when the volcano was showing signs of unrest.
“It’s better to always be prepared because Mayon these days is so uncertain,” she said.
Aside from clothes, the Lascanos brought with them food and cooking utensils.
“We were told that relief goods will not yet be distributed tonight (Tuesday) so we made sure we would have something to eat until tomorrow morning,” Lascano said in Bicol.
Adelina Atun, 60, knew as early as Sunday that she and her two children were likely to be evacuated.
Mayon’s rumblings have become louder, Atun said. “Sometimes, the volcano would sound like an airplane,” she said, adding that the intense crater glow would make her feel nervous.
Atun’s husband, however, like most of the menfolk in the village, was left to guard the family’s property and farm animals.
When the first batch of evacuees from Matanag arrived at Albay Central School, the classrooms had already been emptied.
10 families in 1 classroom
The school will also accommodate 362 families from the village and 84 more from Barangay Padang, said Evelyn Bachiller, assistant camp chief.
Ten families, regardless of size, will share one classroom and comfort room.
Bachiller said there were not enough water sources in the school grounds. “We only have one water pump available because the rest had been stolen. But we expect the city government to set up water stations soon,” she said.
Some classes were suspended indefinitely near the danger zone. Officials will find a way to squeeze in classes in school buildings to be used as shelters, Salceda said.
About 30,000 people were moved when Mayon last erupted in 2006. Typhoon-triggered mudslides near the mountain later that year buried entire villages, killing more than 1,000 people.
Most violent eruption
Mayon’s most violent eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried a town in mud. A 1993 eruption killed 79 people.
The Philippines lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common. Twenty-two out of 37 volcanoes in the archipelago are active. With reports from Alcuin Papa in Manila and Associated Press
Thursday, July 23, 2009
AFTER HALF A CENTURY
DoH: Sorsogon ‘malaria and filariasis-free’
By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 15:38:00 07/23/2009
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines -- After more than half a century, the Department of Health (DoH) declared Sorsogon province "malaria and filariasis free" on Thursday, Bicol health officials said.
It was a milestone to finally declare the province free of the two infectious diseases, Doctor Nestor Santiago Jr., Bicol regional health director, said.
The province has had cases of malaria and filariasis as early as the 1950s and was only finally declared free of them this year, Dr. Alan Lucañas, infectious disease coordinator of the DoH in Bicol, said.
Representatives from the DoH central office in Manila went to Sorsogon for the declaration.
According to the DoH website, malaria is a disease caused by protozoan parasites called Plasmodium. It is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
Its symptoms are chills, fever, too much sweating when the fever subsides, and headache.
Filariasis, which is commonly known as “elephantiasis” because the victim’s legs and arms would swell to a size like those of an elephant’s, is a disease caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes.
Its symptoms are pain and swelling of the breast, vagina, scrotum, legs, and arms; fever, cough, chills, and wheezing.
By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 15:38:00 07/23/2009
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines -- After more than half a century, the Department of Health (DoH) declared Sorsogon province "malaria and filariasis free" on Thursday, Bicol health officials said.
It was a milestone to finally declare the province free of the two infectious diseases, Doctor Nestor Santiago Jr., Bicol regional health director, said.
The province has had cases of malaria and filariasis as early as the 1950s and was only finally declared free of them this year, Dr. Alan Lucañas, infectious disease coordinator of the DoH in Bicol, said.
Representatives from the DoH central office in Manila went to Sorsogon for the declaration.
According to the DoH website, malaria is a disease caused by protozoan parasites called Plasmodium. It is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
Its symptoms are chills, fever, too much sweating when the fever subsides, and headache.
Filariasis, which is commonly known as “elephantiasis” because the victim’s legs and arms would swell to a size like those of an elephant’s, is a disease caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes.
Its symptoms are pain and swelling of the breast, vagina, scrotum, legs, and arms; fever, cough, chills, and wheezing.
6 Albay students test positive for H1N1
By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 15:37:00 07/23/2009
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—A Benedictine school in Albay suspended classes Thursday after six of its grade school students tested positive for the Influenza A(H1N1) virus, Bicol health officials reported.
Dr. Alan Lucañas of the Department of Health in Bicol, said Thursday the six students of St. Agnes' Academy in this city were now well but were still under home quarantine.
The St. Agnes' Academy declined to identify the H1N1-infected students and refused to give information to the media.
It only announced that classes would be suspended until August 3.
Provincial and city health officials, in coordination with the school, are now contact tracing or identifying other students or teachers who have had close contact with the victims.
They are also finding out if the victims have traveled recently.
Lucañas said the confirmation of the cases was delayed three weeks because the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine— the technology used for testing and confirming H1N1 cases—in the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila, was out of order.
All cases nationwide are being tested in the RITM, which in turn send the results in a matter of three to five days to the regional health offices for intervention.
Lucañas said the three-week period that the results were delayed mattered a lot in the enforcement of precautionary measures in the school.
St. Agnes' Academy reported to the DoH high incidence of fever and colds among its students starting early July.
Dr. Nestor Santiago Jr., Bicol health director, said there were now 28 cases of H1N1 in the entire Bicol region—10 in Albay and 18 in Camarines Sur.
He said there were two suspected cases whose test results were pending.
Santiago said the DOH had already localized its intervention measures against H1N1 virus, devolving them to provincial and city health offices.
Founded in 1912, St. Agnes' Academy is the oldest school in Albay, with now around 3,000 students.
The school is the first to suspend classes in Albay province due to the H1N1 virus.
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 15:37:00 07/23/2009
INQUIRER.net
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—A Benedictine school in Albay suspended classes Thursday after six of its grade school students tested positive for the Influenza A(H1N1) virus, Bicol health officials reported.
Dr. Alan Lucañas of the Department of Health in Bicol, said Thursday the six students of St. Agnes' Academy in this city were now well but were still under home quarantine.
The St. Agnes' Academy declined to identify the H1N1-infected students and refused to give information to the media.
It only announced that classes would be suspended until August 3.
Provincial and city health officials, in coordination with the school, are now contact tracing or identifying other students or teachers who have had close contact with the victims.
They are also finding out if the victims have traveled recently.
Lucañas said the confirmation of the cases was delayed three weeks because the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine— the technology used for testing and confirming H1N1 cases—in the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila, was out of order.
All cases nationwide are being tested in the RITM, which in turn send the results in a matter of three to five days to the regional health offices for intervention.
Lucañas said the three-week period that the results were delayed mattered a lot in the enforcement of precautionary measures in the school.
St. Agnes' Academy reported to the DoH high incidence of fever and colds among its students starting early July.
Dr. Nestor Santiago Jr., Bicol health director, said there were now 28 cases of H1N1 in the entire Bicol region—10 in Albay and 18 in Camarines Sur.
He said there were two suspected cases whose test results were pending.
Santiago said the DOH had already localized its intervention measures against H1N1 virus, devolving them to provincial and city health offices.
Founded in 1912, St. Agnes' Academy is the oldest school in Albay, with now around 3,000 students.
The school is the first to suspend classes in Albay province due to the H1N1 virus.
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