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MANILA : The Philippine military has mobilised medical teams to help fight an outbreak of typhoid in the northeast of Manila.
According to the military, the outbreak has left more than 100 people hospitalised as medical teams including laboratory technicians and equipment rush to the towns of Real and Infanta in Quezon Provence to help contain the situation.
The Department of Health confirmed on Wednesday that contaminated water from a stream was the main source of the outbreak of typhoid, a bacterial disease spread by food or drink contaminated with the faeces or urine of infected people.
In the south of the country, health officials are battling a suspected outbreak of cholera that has killed at least two people and put more than 1,500 in hospital.
National Epidemiology Centre chief Eric Tayag said patients were suffering severe stomach pains and diarrhoea, but added that field doctors were trying to verify if all the cases were due to cholera.
Tayag said the patients "were showing cholera symptoms" and most came from the settlement of Tagoloan in southern Misamis Oriental, where heavy rain has caused minor flooding which could have contaminated the drinking water supply.
The Red Cross said water samples taken from the area were being tested.
A Red Cross official in Manila told AFP the charity's chapter in Misamis Oriental had confirmed that two people had died and that nine out of the 10 villages in Tagaloan were reporting suspected cholera cases.
"We are continuously monitoring the situation and are expecting more field reports to come in later in the day," said the official, who did not want to be named.
- AFP/sf/de
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