Three weeks after it’s most recent typhoon, there are still many flooded areas in the Philip­pines. The flood­ing has helped to spread a bac­te­r­ial dis­ease that has killed more than 130 peo­ple. The Philip­pines are ask­ing for addi­tional aid to help fight the outbreak.

From Reuters Alert Net, reporter Manny Mogato tells us more about the outbreak.

More than 130 peo­ple had died and nearly 2,000 remained in gov­ern­ment hos­pi­tals due to lep­tospiro­sis, a bac­te­r­ial infec­tion caused by expo­sure to ani­mal urine. The bac­te­ria are com­mon in trop­i­cal coun­tries with heavy rain­fall and fre­quent flooding.

“We have already sent an SOS to the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity because this is one of the biggest out­break of lep­tospiro­sis not just in the Philip­pines, but in the world,” Tayag told law­mak­ers at a pub­lic hear­ing in Manila.

He said about 680 cases of lep­tospiro­sis were reported every year. From Oct. 1–15, a total of 1,887 cases have been reported in 15 hos­pi­tals in Manila region, Tayag said, adding the health depart­ment needed about $1 mil­lion worth of med­i­cines to con­tain the disease.

Health author­i­ties said 1.7 mil­lion peo­ple in Manila and two nearby provinces are at risk because flood waters in these areas are expected to remain until Decem­ber 2009. The Philip­pines is brac­ing for another pow­er­ful typhoon in the north­ern regions on the main island of Luzon, evac­u­at­ing thou­sands to avoid death and destruction.

Typhoon Lupit, which means “fierce” in Fil­ipino, was expected to make land­fall around the far north­ern tip of the Luzon region by Thurs­day and dump more rain on typhoon-weary provinces, said the weather bureau.

Ket­sana and Parma dam­aged or destroyed more than 27 bil­lion pesos ($580 mil­lion) in crops and infrastructure.

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