At least six patients have died due to leptospirosis over the past three days at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City.
The fatalities consist of a 16-year-old boy and five adults who all died due to pulmonary hemorrhage or bleeding in the lungs, according to Dr. Luis Limchiu Jr., chairman of NKTI’s Department of Adult Nephrology.
Thirty-three others are still confined at the hospital.
Limchiu expressed alarm over the increasing number in the cases of leptospirosis.
To date, there are 22 leptospirosis patients still undergoing dialysis to treat kidney failure caused by the rat-borne disease.
“We recorded 44 admissions between June 23 and 27. This is alarming because we only had 41 leptospirosis patients in the entire 2017,” Hemodialysis Unit chief Dr. Romina Danguilan said.
“Most of the patients were family breadwinners who had waded in floods and work even during stormy weather,” she added.
The NKTI was forced to put up 24 make-shift beds for the patients at the gym.
Danguilan said they are bracing for more leptospirosis patients to be admitted because of the rainy season.
She added that the frequent flooding and the failure of those possibly exposed to rat urine to take anti-leptospirosis antibiotics, such as prophylaxis capsules that directly attack the bacteria from rat urine, Danguilan said.
“These prescriptive antibiotics are available for free from barangay health clinics and government hospitals,” she added.
According to the Department of Health, there were 1,030 cases of leptospirosis from Jan. 1 to June 9.
The half-year figure is nearly double the total number of leptospirosis cases in 2017 pegged at 2,495, the DoH said.