Malaria stalks Hanjin workers

By Henry Empeño - The Nation

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) had warned employees at the Hanjin shipyard here that malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquito bite, is prevalent at the Redondo Peninsula, the site of the shipbuilding project that now employs some 17,000 workers.

In a statement on Tuesday, the SBMA urged workers and companies at the Hanjin shipyard to “take extra precaution and implement measures to prevent and combat malaria,” a vector-borne disease that, while not contagious, could be fatal.

The agency said Hanjin workers, as well as residents of the Redondo area, should avail themselves of malaria-screening tests that are administered for free by the SBMA and rural-health units in the town of Subic, Zambales.

“Malaria is endemic in the area, so it is necessary to control the vector, or the organism that transmits the disease germs,” stressed Solomon Jacalne, SBMA deputy administrator for health and safety.

“The disease itself is transmitted by mosquito bite, so what residents and workers have to do is protect themselves from bites, and rid their areas of stagnant pools of water where mosquitoes breed,” Jacalne said.

The SBMA issued the warning following reports that some workers employed by Less Builders, a Hanjin subcontractor, have succumbed to the disease last week.

According to Task Force Hanjin (TFH), a community group monitoring the Hanjin project, one of the infected workers died on May 14, 10 days after experiencing fever, chills and stomach pain.
The victim reportedly tested positive for plasmodium falciparum, a type of malaria that doctors say may cause kidney failure, seizure, coma and death if not promptly treated.

Two employees of Less Builders, who were also diagnosed with malaria, remained in the hospital as of last week, while four others have been discharged, the TFH said.

Jacalne pointed out, however, that the SBMA’s Public Health and Safety Department was not informed about the recent malaria cases at the Hanjin shipyard despite an ongoing malaria-control program at the Redondo area.

“We have met with Hanjin officials and their subcontractors and we stressed that should any worker in the shipyard becomes ill, he should be screened first before being sent home,” he said.
“The [recent] cases were not brought to the attention of SBMA authorities,” he stressed.

Jacalne said a malaria-control program has been in place at the Redondo Peninsula since last year, as Hanjin started construction of its shipyard in the area.

The program is being implemented by the Malaria Task Force (MTF), a body composed of health workers from the SBMA, the Center for Health Development in Central Luzon (CHD-CL), the Subic Rural Health Unit (RHU), the Zambales provincial health office, the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF)-Global Fund Malaria, Hanjin and the city health office of Olongapo.

The task force provides for free malaria screening and medicines, implements preventive-control measures like residual spraying of mosquito repellant in houses, distribution of chemically treated mosquito nets, mass blood smearing and information and education drive, said Jacalne.

Aside from the SBMA Dispensary, the Subic RHU also provides free malaria screening, he added.

The SBMA also said that malaria has long been endemic at the Redondo Peninsula, particularly barangay Cawag, where the Hanjin shipyard is located.

In a medical mission to the area in June 2006, SBMA doctors found that two of the four known types of malaria have infected some of the residents there.

However, some residents have refused to use chemically-treated mosquito nets provided free by the RHU “because the nets added to the effect of summer heat,” health workers said.

When Hanjin began construction of the shipyard in 2006, SBMA health officials sought the assistance of the CHD-CL to help eradicate malaria in the peninsula, leading to the creation of the MTF last year.

As of May 14, the task force has reportedly screened 4,519 residents and workers at Redondo, including 864 workers at the Hanjin apartment complex.

Of this total, 239 individuals had tested positive, with three cases having been treated, Jacalne said. The free medicine were provided by CHD-CL and TDF.