ALABEL, SARANGANI – Local health personnel were dispatched to a remote mountain village in Malapatan town to contain a measles outbreak which killed at least 20 people and hospitalized 100 others.
Gov. Steve Solon said medical personnel from the Provincial Health Office have been deployed to Barangay Upper Suyan in Malapatan town where some 20 children have died due to measles while 100 others were hospitalized for the past weeks.
Boyet Ogan, village chief of Barangay Upper Suyan, said the outbreak of the disease was detected during the first week of this month wherein three children died after they were afflicted with measles.
He said right after the death of the first victims, several measles-stricken victims in several far-flung sitios have also died the following weeks.
The municipal health office of Malapatan town is still conducting assessment on the extent of the affected areas since Barangay Uper Suyan is a remote village located at the boundary of Sarangani and Davao Occidental.
Rescue and emergency teams had to walk for several hours before they reach the area which is a known bailiwick of the New People’s Army. (JOSEPH JUBELAG)
