(PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)
MANILA – The Philippines has logged 1,467 leptospirosis cases for the first eight months this year, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.
In a Viber message to reporters, the DOH said data from Jan. 1 to Aug. 20 translates to a 15 percent increase from 1,278 cases in the same period last year.
A total of 205 deaths due to leptospirosis were reported nationwide -- 14 in January; 11 in February; 23 in March; 32 in April; 29 in May; 29 in June; 53 in July; and 14 in August.
Most of the cases were reported in the National Capital Region (NCR) with 279 or 19 percent; Cagayan Valley, 174 or 12 percent; and Western Visayas 174 or 12 percent.
From July 24 to Aug. 20, about 106 cases were recorded, 36 or 34 percent of which were from the NCR; 12 or 11 percent from Central Luzon; and 10 or 9 percent from Davao Region.
The DOH said the Bicol region, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, and Davao region breached the alert and epidemic threshold within the past four morbidity weeks.
However, there was no clustering of cases noted nationwide. (PNA)
