Diarrhea kills 18 in Parigi Moutong

PALU: At least 18 people of the Lauje tribe in Tinombo district, Parigi Moutong regency, Central Sulawesi, have died due to diarrhea between October and November 2010.

“We’ve decided to name this an extraordinary occurrence as the death toll from the diarrhea outbreak has reached more than a dozen,” Nurlela Harate of Parigi Moutong Health Office said Tuesday.

Nurlela explained that the diarrhea outbreak was caused mainly by, among other things, poor sanitation in the residential sites.

The health office in cooperation with the local community health center, Nurlela said, had deployed a medical team to help address the problem.

“We’ve listed the number of people infected with the illness and the death toll,” she said. — JP