MANILA – A woman executive of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has become the latest victim of the dreaded swine flu virus in the Philippines, a senior member of the Arroyo Cabinet reported on Thursday.
Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd of the Department of Health told a press briefing that the ADB official, a Filipino woman whom he did not identify, tested positive of the ailment after she had complained of flu symptoms like fever, cough and sore throat.
Duque said the official just arrived from the US which has been affected by the spread of the disease, but she did not practice self-quarantine as proposed by health experts.
Instead, a few days after her arrival, the official reported for work at the ADB where she later complained of the flu symptoms, the health secretary said.
He added the official volunteered to have a checkup at the Regional Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) where she was confirmed to be suffering from the disease, now known as the A(HINI) virus.
Despite the RITM findings, however, Duque said he would not recommend that the ADB suspend its operations as he did earlier with a private religious school when one of its students was also found positive of the virus.
He said officials of De La Salle University, which is run by Christian Brothers, decided to voluntarily close its campus in Manila starting Wednesday up to June 14, after one of its foreign exchange students, a woman, was found positive of the ailment.
According to Duque, the suspension of classes was in line with the guidelines regarding the disease, which provide that school authorities should suspend classes after detection of at least one confirmed case and that there is no sustained community transmission.
Duque said the patient, is a 21-year-old female foreigner who arrived in the country on May 12 who also complained of symptoms of the ailment. As a matter of policy, he also refused to identify the patient to protect her privacy.
But he admitted he and other health experts are puzzled how the student had contracted the virus as she was reported to have “mild symptoms” only on May 29 which was way beyond the 10-day incubation for the virus.
In this light, Duque said the patient could have been infected in the Philippines and not in her country of origin.
On Thursday, Duque confirmed that two more De La Salle students, who have come in close contact with the woman, have been confirmed to be suffering from the virus.
School officials said their Manila campus has a total of 13,000 students and 1,500 faculty and other personnel. The school started its trimester classes on May 23.
With the latest confirmed flu virus cases, a Malacanang spokesman expressed alarm over the noticeable increase but he also reiterated that there is no need for the people to panic because concerned health and other officials are on top of the situation.
Earlier, Dr. So Nynut-U, country representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the number of confirmed case is still “very manageable” and would not result in the elevation of the pandemic-level from the present five to six level.
What the WHO regional headquarters for Western Pacific, based in Manila, is worried about is Australia which reported 500 cases in the past few days, So pointed out.
Loading ...
Reader’s Views