LINGAYEN, Pangasinan —The Provincial Health Office is investigating the death of an eight-year-old girl from Sison town, who appeared to be the first death reported in Pangasinan because of Japanese encephalitis.
The victim died while being treated at the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union, where she was diagnosed as having Stage 4 Japanese encephalitis, her mother said.
The disease is an infection of the brain caused by the mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus or JEV, and is most prevalent in Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. Domestic pigs and wild birds, especially herons, are reservoirs of the virus, and transmission to humans may cause severe symptoms.
The mother said the girl, named Lyra Mae, was first brought to the emergency room of a hospital in Rosario, La Union Saturday morning, and when doctors could not diagnose her ailment, they recommended that she be brought to the ITRCM.
She said they were not able to leave the hospital immediately, as they had yet to settle their bill of P3,500, and were only released when the husband of her sister arrived and provided the guarantee.
The woman related that inside the vehicle, Lyra Mae’s pulse had stopped, and so they had to bring her to the La Union Provincial Hospital in Agoo where doctors revived her. They recommended Lyra Mae be brought immediately to the ITRMC, where the girl eventually died.
On Wednesday, Health Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said the vaccine for Japanese encephalitis is commercially available, but discouraged people from getting the shot during the rainy season, when the disease becomes more frequent.
The Department of Health said in a statement that the vaccine will be introduced to young children in 2018 as soon as data confirms its efficacy.
Tayag also clarified that it is the Culex species of mosquitoes that carries Japanese encephalitis, not the Aedes aegypti breed that carries the dengue, chikungunya, Zika fever, Mayaro and yellow fever viruses.
Lyra Mae’s mother noticed her daughter was not feeling well when she arrived home from school Wednesday last week. Despite this, Lyra Mae insisted on going to school the next day.
At noon Thursday, the girl went home complaining of fever and headache. The mother gave her medicine and her fever subsided.
However, Lyra Mae vomited and was coughing intensely on Saturday morning so her mother brought her to the hospital on suspicion of suffering from dengue.