BAGUIO City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo on Thursday, July 12, refuted reports there was high incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) among pupils at Pinget Elementary School in Barangay Pinget.
Galpo said the report which came out on national television saying that 96 percent of the 700 pupils tested positive for UTI was inaccurate as this was based solely on results of dipstick tests and not on actual laboratory urinalysis or other confirmatory examinations that would have proven if it was indeed UTI that afflicted the children.
Although they have yet to conduct validation of the results, Galpo said trends of the past showed only 10 to 20 percent of the dipstick results gathered from a testing population ended up positive for urinary tract anomaly and that less than ten percent tested positive for UTI.
"That is why based on the trend and experience, we can say that the report was incorrect and exaggerated," Galpo said.
A dipstick test, according to Galpo, is just a basic diagnostic tool to determine pathological changes in urine that may point to UTI, kidney disease, urinary track trauma or even diabetes but it does not give definite or conclusive diagnosis unlike actual urinalysis or other laboratory tests.
The City Health Services Office has been conducting such tests as part of their renal disease control program in the barangays.
Galpo said the data did not come from the health district that covers the area as Dr. Elvira Belingon, head of the barangay health district in the area, was out of town attending an official function in La Union when the news came out.
She took to task persons in the barangay who divulged data which she said are covered by the doctor-patient confidentiality and are still supposed to be subjected to further tests and verification.
"It was downright irresponsible and which now resulted to wrong information that created alarm and put our city in negative light," Galpo lamented.
Galpo also appealed to the media to be more responsible in reporting by exerting effort to verify their facts before reporting to the public.
Although the report resulted to a community effort toward prevention of UTI, Galpo said this could have been better directed if only a definite diagnosis was first obtained to which proper interventions could have been done to ensure that they are addressing the true root cause of the problem.
Rebecca Mallaga, a faculty from the school said the report not only provoked panic among the students and their parents, but it also created a bad image for the school.
Mallaga stated the local health center and the barangay captain asked the school canteen and nearby convenience stores to stop selling junk food, soft drinks, and juice packs to the children after the screening test because they were all alarmed by the screening test findings.
The school also administered other preventive efforts were also made by the school like putting up water gallons stations at every classroom and at their eating areas. (Aileen Refuerzo/Baguio City PIO with reports from Zoe Ramores and Kyna Abigail Sobrevega/UP Baguio interns)