Typhoon leaves 20 dead in Philippines
Manila, surrounding provinces face leptospirosis outbreak
Last Updated: Sunday, November 1, 2009 | 9:40 AM ET
CBC News
Streets are flooded as garbage and other waste blocks drainage systems in Manila. (Anthony Germain/CBC)Crews in the Philippines are trying to restore the damage from Typhoon Mirinae, which killed 20 people in a region where floodwaters from a series of storms are making people sick.
The storm that ripped through Manila and surrounding provinces in the last two days has added to the pooling of water in the streets of the capital and other parts of the northern Philippines.
The floodwaters are blamed for an outbreak of leptospirosis, a disease passed through animal urine, usually rats. Eighty-nine people in the capital have died of the illness, as have more than 100 in outlying regions.
Garbage and other waste is blocking drainage systems. Occasionally in Manila, you can see a rat scrabbling on the heaps of trash, or sometimes swimming.
Jillian Ramirez, 35, fears for her two young daughters because it's impossible to get around the city without wading through water.
"We have a lot of people in the hospital because of leptospirosis," she said.
The bacterial infection is acquired when people with cuts or open sores come into contact with dirty water.
If untreated, the illness can cause kidney failure, liver damage or death.
Health officials in the Philippines say at least 2,000 people are in hospital infected with leptospirosis.
There is no vaccine against the disease.
Typhoon Mirinae weakened Sunday as it headed over the South China Sea. It was expected to strike Vietnam's central coast around noon Monday.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered residents to begin evacuating high-risk areas of five coastal provinces and ordered Vietnamese fishermen in the South China Sea to seek shelter immediately.
The two countries are still recovering from Typhoon Ketsana, which brought the Philippine capital, Manila, its worst flooding in 40 years and went on to kill more than 160 people in Vietnam in late September.
With files from The Associated Press
