MANILA - Disease control should be the utmost priority now of government officials, as victims of Tropical Storm Ondoy grapple with skin infections and signs of flu - according to Gawad Kalinga (GK).

GK executive director Jose Oquiñena said that in areas they visited, people already bore eczema, a skin disease characterized by itching and redness. “They have swollen skin on their feet,” he told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak.

Eczema is a flood-borne infection. GK has visited victims of the storm in Pateros municipality, Napindan in Taguig, Pasig City, and Rizal province.

Aside from eczema and other fungal diseases, Oquiñena said that the victims were also vulnerable to fever and dengue.

He added that they will launch a medical mission and will mobilize their own volunteer-doctors and nurses, as the “Department of Health (DOH) is overwhelmed.”

The DOH had earlier forewarned against the spread of water-borne diseases such as measles, acute respiratory infections, acute diarrhea, influenza, and leptospirosis.

DOH Sec. Francisco Duque said that the transmission of diseases could be especially fast in cramped evacuation centers.

Oquiñena said that the government should link up with civic groups in extending the necessary aid to victims. On its own, GK could tap hundreds of volunteers, he said.

Local government officials have already partnered with them, such as Quezon City Mayor Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte.

National agencies could take advantage of the resources that civic groups could offer, he added.

GK has also asked the families living in GK communities to extend assistance, especially those who have already been able to recover from the effects of the storm.

In Sitio Pajo community in Baesa, Quezon City, for example, water reached the second level of the houses Saturday night.

Come Sunday morning, however, the water subsided already and by Monday, the area was already clean.

Among the families living in 126 houses built by GK, no one died or got hurt.

GK founder Tony Meloto then urged the families there to donate food, clothes and medicine to other communities.

He said that medicine that are most needed are those such as Paracetamol, Buscopan, Lomotil and wound-care medicines.

Donations to Operation GK Walang Iwanan could be brought to RFM Gym along Pioneer Street in Mandaluyong City. Report by Purple Romero, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.