High UTI incidence TV report false: Baguio City health officer

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo refuted reports last week that there was high incidence of urinary tract infection among pupils at Pinget Elementary School at Pinget barangay here.

Galpo said the report which came out on national television saying 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 that 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 10 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 that 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 said.  

She 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.