GENERAL SANTOS CITY — South Cotabato province sustained its malaria-free status despite a rise in the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases in neighboring areas in the past months.
Jose Barroquillo, mosquito-borne diseases program coordinator of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), said Tuesday they have not recorded any case of malaria so far in identified vulnerable barangays in the boundary areas with the provinces of Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat.
Barroquillo said they have been continually monitoring several barangays in Tboli and Lake Sebu towns due to the possible emergence of new cases of malaria.
The Department of Health (DOH) had monitored rising cases of the mosquito-borne malaria and filariasis in Barangay Maligang, Kiamba town in Sarangani.
The affected area is adjacent to Barangay Tudok and several upland villages of T’boli, South Cotabato, he said.
Barroquillo said the IPHO’s epidemiology and surveillance unit and the mosquito-borne diseases program monitoring team have been regularly conducting random blood tests among residents of the vulnerable villages.
“These are aimed at ensuring the immediate treatment of new indigenous or imported malaria cases that might emerge and prevent possible outbreaks,” he said.
South Cotabato, which was declared by the DOH and the World Health Organization as malaria-free last year, has not recorded any indigenous case of malaria in the past six years.
In 2015, the IPHO recorded two “imported” malaria cases in the municipalities of Tantangan and Tampakan.
It said the victims were infected with malaria outside of South Cotabato. One was a chainsaw operator who had worked in a logging company in Papua New Guinea while the other victim was a motorcycle-for-hire driver from Maguindanao.
“Rest assured that we’re doing everything to sustain our malaria-free status and prevent imported cases from coming in,” he said.
Aside from monitoring vulnerable villages, he said they have also been participating in periodic anti-malaria border operations with health personnel from Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat.
Facilitated by the DOH, he added that the periodic border operations are focused on communities within the boundary areas that are considered endemic to malaria. (Anna liza Cabrido/PNA)
