Manila - The World Health Organization (WHO) has dispatched a team of experts to help the Philippines deal with an outbreak of a flood-borne disease that has killed 148 people, a spokesman said Thursday. The team was formed after the Philippines issued a global request for assistance in controlling leptospirosis, which has also infected nearly 2,000 people since the start of the month.
Adam Craig, a spokesman for the WHO's Western Pacific regional office in Manila, said the team was made up of four experts on leptospirosis, epidemiology, clinical management, and communications and risk.
"The team is currently in transit and will arrive in the next day or so," he said. "Their role is to provide technical assistance to the government in the area of disease surveillance, clinical management and outbreak control."
"They will be predominantly looking at how to get people into hospitals and how to treat them properly so we can reduce the number of deaths," he said.
Craig said the experts were expected to stay in Manila for up to two weeks.
Leptospirosis is a fatal bacterial infection acquired when water contaminated with animal urine comes into contact with unhealed breaks in the skin, eyes or mucous membranes. It could trigger kidney, liver and respiratory failure.
Craig said the large number of cases in the Philippines was a "significant concern" for the UN agency.
"It's a big issue, and there's obviously still floodwater around, which means there's still people at risk," he said.
The leptospirosis outbreak occurred after Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped one month's worth of rain in Manila and outlying areas on September 26, causing the worst flooding in more than 40 years. The deluge killed 464 people.
One week later, Typhoon Parma battered the northern Philippines, causing landslides and floods that killed 438 people.
