A four-year-old boy has died in what the Health department’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU)-7 declared on Wednesday as a cholera outbreak at a Badjao community in Brgy. Totolan, Dauis.

The boy who had not been admitted to a hospital died on February 10 and is the sole fatality in the cholera-stricken village where 73 other residents were infected with the disease, based on data from the Central Visayas RESU.

However, the RESU-7 said that the outbreak is now under control while most of the patients are already recovering.

The RESU through a laboratory test found out that the private water source used and consumed by the Badjao residents tested positive for contamination with e-fecal coliform bacteria.

Those infected with the disease experienced diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pains.

“It takes between 12 hours and 5 days for a person to show symptoms after ingesting contaminated food or water,” according to the World Health Organization. “Cholera affects both children and adults and can kill within hours if untreated.”

According to Provincial Health Office (PHP) chief Dr. Reymoses Cabagnot, he will be sending a team to coordinate with the town’s mayor and the village’s barangay captain regarding the badjao resident’s situation.

An investigating team from the PHO had raised sanitary concerns at the periphery of the Badjao community.

The PHO urged the local government unit of Dauis to improve sanitary conditions in the community by upgrading water supply and toilets, and providing proper garbage disposal area for the residents. (Rey Tutas)