HEALTH authorities in the region are monitoring three reported cases of the dreaded disease called capillarisis that were noted in Ilocos region since March this year.

Health Regional Director Eduardo Janairo said the case downed three farmers in a town in La Union. They were treated at the Ilocos Region Training Hospital in San Fernando City.

“We are monitoring the condition of the three farmers. We want to know if these are primary cases, meaning the disease came from the area, or probably from another area,” Janairo told newsmen.

The three were able recover from their ailment but they are still being continuously monitored by a team headed by Dr. Raquel Magalong to find out the history of the disease since this was only the first time that the disease emerged in the region.

“It is the history of the disease that we are after,” Janairo said, “We want to know the kind of micro-organism that caused the disease to find out the proper treatment for the disease.”

Janairo revealed that capillarisis is caused by a micro-organism from snails that may have gotten through the skin of farmers while they worked in their paddy rice fields.

Health authorities said capillarisis has the same symptoms as schistosomiasis that downed one person in Ilocos Sur in 2002.

The health director said they want to find out exactly if the disease that was noted in Ilocos Sur six years ago may have re-emerged and took the form of capillarisis.

While wading in their fields, the farmers may have been pricked by the snails in their feet, thus the micro-organism managed to enter their body through the bloodline, just like the bite of mosquito.

Symptoms of the disease include high fever, edema, lymph gland blockage and lung problem which could endanger the life of the patient as water will have difficulty coming out from the lungs.