DOH: Wash your hands frequently to prevent diseases

Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona yesterday urged evacuees at the Notre Dame Village Elementary School in Cotabato City to frequently wash their hands and boil their drinking water or add chlorine tablets to prevent water-borne diseases at their evacuation sites.

Ona, together with President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Dinky Soliman, distributed relief goods to families devastated by floods due to typhoon Egay.

According to the health chief, the most common diseases seen at the evacuation camps were cough and colds because the people were exposed to the cold weather living only in makeshift tents. He also asked evacuees to wash their hands before eating and after using the toilet to prevent the spread of diseases.

Ona added that a measles and rubella vaccination is being done by regional health workers among all evacuees aged up to below 15 years.

In addition to assorted medicines and relief goods, the Department of Health also distributed water containers to assure that every family in the evacuation camp will have their own supply of potable water. Also, the Center for Health Development for SOCCKSARGEN in Cotabato City and the DOH-Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao each gave P500,000 each to augment the need for medicines and other supplies.

“Disease surveillance and monitoring of cases will be done daily in evacuation camps to avert any possible epidemic,” Ona assured. He added that good personal hygiene like washing of hands, use of toilet, and maintaining clean surroundings will help in preventing/reducing diseases.