Dengue outbreak in Southville a disaster waiting to happen

EVEN as the dengue outbreak declared in Cabuyao, Laguna has already claimed the lives of six children from a relocation site for railway settlers there, Vice President Noli de Castro was seemingly in no mood to commiserate with their bereaved families, preferring instead to be in a self-denial mode.

Yesterday, de Castro disputed reports that the two children who recently died from dengue were residents of the Southville Housing Project, a government resettlement site for railway dwellers displaced by clearing operations in line with the North Rail-South Rail Linkage Project. As concurrent chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), De Castro is the top government official responsible for coordinating resettlement efforts involving the government’s ambitious railway rehabilitation program.

The vice president is particularly putting the blame on some nongovernmental organizations, which he said, are bent on discrediting him, suggesting that they may have fed the media with inaccurate information. The basis of his claim are the declared addresses of the two children who were taken to the Mandaluyong Medical Center which indicated that they were Mandaluyong City residents.

Contrary to de Castro’s claim though, the two children, including four others who later succumbed to dengue, were all Southville residents. The Buiza sisters, Kayla, 3, and Alexandra Kristel, 5, lived with their parents and siblings at Block 47, Lot 27. Their mother Jennifer said her family (see photo) has been residing in Southville since February this year, when they were forced to resettle there, together with other families which used to live along the railways in Magallanes.

Kayla died at 10 a.m. of November 5. Her sister Kristel expired at 10 p.m. the next day.

Four other children who have reportedly died of dengue were one-and-a-half-year-old Alexandra Politico of Block 53; three-year-olds Jethro Sotto Santos of Block 58, Lot 69 and Jean Claire Mortera of Block 62; and Claire Moras, 9 years old, of Block 53, Lot 62, who just died today. Jean Claire died while she was being treated at the Philippine General Hospital on November 2.

Based on a survey conducted by the Urban Poor Southville Association Inc. (UPSAI), 17 others were also found to be afflicted with dengue, or exhibiting symptoms of the disease, most of them children.

Ester Terencio, UPSAI president, said that among the victims now confined and undergoing treatment at the PGH and San Lazaro Hospital in Manila are the following:

• Jemma Opiana, 6, Block 58, Lot 119
• Mark Kenneth Cancino, 8, Block 58, Lot 47
• Ma. Angelica Cancino, 5, Block 58, Lot 47
• Rastie Tanod, 4
• Raisen Tanod, 6
• Gemma Vinosa, 6, Block 58, Lot 119
• Ma. Quinie Mendoza, Block 57, Lot 83
• Zyra Aguaviva, 8, Block 48, Lot 35
• Ryan Orio, 6, Block 60, Lot 69
• Jayne Camille Capitan, 12, Block 53, Lot 78
• Jayzle Camille Capitan, 8
• Jayrle Camille Capitan, 4
• Mary Ann Conde, 7, Block 53
• John Wilson Lonzaga, 7
• Joey Obias, 34
• Emmylou Hacildo, 31, Block 47

An angry Ruth Jamandri, grandmother of Jean Claire, said families of the dengue victims were only forced to use Metro Manila addresses of their relatives so they can be accommodated in hospitals in the metropolis after they were all turned down by the Cabuyao Hospital.

Jamandri narrated that her granddaughter was first brought to the St. James Hospital in Cabuyao but had to be rushed to the PGH because the hospital lacks facilities to treat her.

“Hindi man lang kami hinatid ng ambulansya, nag-bus lang kami. Kaya pagdating namin sa PGH, ang tanong sa amin ng mga doktor bakit byinahe pa namin siya nang malayo at hindi binigyan ng lunas sa Cabuyao (The hospital’s ambulance did not even take us to PGH. We had to take a bus. The doctors were asking us how come we had to bring her here all the way from Cabuyao when they should have treated her there)?” she complained.

Terencio also confirmed the shabby treatment that Southville residents have received from the Cabuyao Hospital. “Ang sinasabi sa amin lagi walang facilities ang ospital para sa mga taga-Southville dahil hindi kami covered ng budget ng Cabuyao local government (They always tell us that the hospital doesn’t have the facilities for Southville residents since we are not covered by the Cabuyao local government’s budget).”

Regardless of de Castro’s protestations of resident’s accusations that government has neglected their plight, the deplorable environmental and health situation at the Southville relocation site is there for everyone to see. Besides sitting next to a dumpsite that has only been ordered closed last September, the site’s poorly built drainage systems have often resulted in polluted water flooding the areas — even inside houses — when it rains.

Particularly flood-prone are houses built in Blocks 53, 55, 56, 57 and 58 that are closest to the dumpsite — the same areas that have reported cases of dengue. (Click here for a gallery of images of Southville.)

Aside from open drainage canals, residents also point to stagnant water in unused water tanks and shallow diggings near the school currently under construction as possible breeding grounds for Aedes aegypti mosquitoes responsible for spreading the dengue virus.

This is not the first time that deaths of infants and children were reported and blamed on the poor conditions in the site. In previous months, six children have died of pneumonia, sepsis and diarrhea cases, including Analyn Necerio‘s three-month-old twins, Ashley and Angelo; and Elena Moreno‘s one year and seven-month-old baby Altea. Daniela Lico, aged two, and Anabelle Sabines, both died of pneumonia.

Adults have also been complaining of a host of ailments, from upset stomachs, acute bronchitis, acute respiratory upper tract infection, flu to other ailments while the children are also afflicted with serious skin diseases.

Fearing an emerging health crisis in Southville, groups like the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), EcoWaste Coalition, National Secretariat for Social Action, and Justice and Peace (NASSA) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) sought the intervention of the Department of Health (DOH) as early as September.

In a letter addressed to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, they urged the DOH to immediately send medical and environmental sanitation teams to Southville on a regular basis and to seriously look into the water, drainage, electricity and indoor pollution issues, which the groups say, if adequately resolved, would tremendously improve the environmental health conditions in the relocation site.

Noting how relocatees were living near the dumpsite and without adequate potable water, electricity, and provisions for proper waste disposal and health centers, San Pablo Bishop Leo Drona also issued a pastoral statement in September saying that while they may have been rescued from the danger zone in their “homes along the riles,” the relocation site may become a “death zone” if the conditions are not properly and adequately attended to.

Sadly, his and NGOs’ warnings have fallen on deaf ears, only lending more credence to relocatees’ assertions about Southville being a “sementeryo (burial ground).”