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THEY NO LONGER CRY
(March 10, 2004)
A volunteer medical team rushed to Mabuhay, a remote mountain village in Marilog District in Davao City after a measles outbreak was reported killing at least 11 children. A team from the Department of Health also came to confirm the incident and to conduct vaccination. Later the National Commission on Indigenous People(NCIP) also sent their own medical team.
Amasing Man-akin and his wife Lolita had 11 children. Not long ago they lost four of them to measles. The couple came to Mabuhay when they heard of the visiting medical team. Man-akin and his wife walked at least an hour to come to the village. With them are three of their surviving children very sick with measles.
Man-akin’s hard luck is not unusual to this remote region endemic to airborne diseases. When we started our work in these jungles in 1986, locals told me of the “hundreds” of children dying whenever epidemic strikes. The number could be an exaggeration but cannot be dismissed as untrue. Their isolation, pathetic condition and in access to medicines makes them easily susceptible to the onslaught of viruses like measles.
A father tries to decide if he should walk for several hours to the nearest medical clinic with his sick child.
In the end he decides, why should I go through the trouble when he will die anyway?
In 1994, Carlito Lantong, a native of Mabuhay saw the death of 8 of his children to measles (whom he borne them to 3 wives). “Every day that week I lay two of my kids to their grave.” He could no longer cry. In February 2001, we have witnessed the death of children in Marilog when an epidemic struck claiming the lives of 15 children. Official record remains at 8. The incident was so gruesome that it got the attention of the local media.
A mother continues to hold and talk to her
child after he has been dead for a couple hours.
“We could have prevented this problem if the government’s Health Department had been aggressive in implementing the vaccination program,” said Jovee Adignadice, a medical surgeon who flew in from Manila to join the volunteer team. Dahlia Casas, a midwife who heads the vaccination team from the city proves this was not easy. “We only have 4 people to conduct this vaccination program to 12 Barangays. We have a target of 10,328 children and we have already done 8,000 kids.” Asked why they had not started the vaccination in the remotest area. “This job calls for men and we are all-woman team. Our nurse is even pregnant and she could not come. It’s too dangerous for us to come to this place.”
Doctor Bong Piñera, an Epidemiologist who was sent to confirm the outbreak thinks that the problem lies on the natives themselves. “The people must realize their own problem. Right now health is not their priority,” he said. In fact, “We discourage medical teams such as this one. It is very expensive,” hinting that an aid like this makes the people too dependent.
The sick wait for hours to get help.
Josephine Paniday, a Barangay Health worker assigned to the village of Malikongkong, Guilon and Mabuhay hopes that doctors realize the trouble parents go through to bring their children to the hospital in town. “To go to the nearest hospital in Kibalang, a patient from Malikongkong, the nearest village will walk 27 kilometers one way.” A mother who needs to take a child for vaccination worries about leaving the other children at home. (Fathers are usually out gathering food or working their farm plots). So she takes the other children with her. When she gets to town she needs money to spend for transportation and food. It only cost P5 for a jeepney ride to the hospital. But for them this is still a lot.” By the time the natives’ consider this through they choose to forget about it. “People would bring their sick to the hospital only when they are dying. Others will resign to the fate. They seemed to have loss the value of life.”
Then, who’s to blame? I asked Carlito. “Our ancestors had never had this.. I don’t remember seeing this happening to our children when I was growing up.” He suspects that the virus comes from the lowland which the doctors disagree. For the meantime, the mortality figure seems to be heading from bad to worst. This time in Mabuhay, 11 kids are already dead. Carlito just lost another child. Amazingly- he still manages to smile.
- Pio Arce
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