MANILA – The number of swine flu cases in the Philippines soared to 33 with the confirmation of four more victims who were afflicted by the highly contagious disease, a senior member of the Arroyo Cabinet reported on Friday.
Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd of the Department of Health said of the four new confirmed patients, three were colleagues of a female foreign student enrolled at the De La Salle University, a private coeducational institution run by Christian brothers in Metro Manila.
Duque added the fourth patient tested positive of the disease, now known as the A(H1N1) virus, following his arrival from the US where an alarming increase in the number of infected victims has been detected.
On Thursday, the number of flu cases reached a total of 29 when seven more patients were confirmed, including a woman executive of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), according to Duque.
He said the ADB executive, a Filipina, returned to the Philippines from the US on May 30 and started showing symptoms of the ailment, like fever, sore throat and cough as she reported back to work.
Meanwhile, two big Philippines schools, the University of Santo Tomas which is run by Dominican priests and the Far Eastern University which are both located at the “university belt” in Manila, announced on Friday they are delaying for one week the opening of their classes scheduled on June 8 due to the flu virus.
Officials of the two universities explained they want to take all the necessary precautionary measures to prevent the outbreak of the disease once they resume their classes for students in the higher level.
The two schools followed the example of De La Salle University which announced the closure of its campus in Manila following the confirmation that the female foreign exchange student had tested positive of the virus.
This developed as Dr. Emmanuel Angeles, the chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), ordered foreign students coming from countries known to have the flue virus to submit to a 10-day quarantine upon their arrival in the country.
Angeles explained these students, especially those coming from the US, Mexico, Australia and other countries, would not be allowed inside the schools where they have been enrolled until they have observed the 10-day quarantine.
Earlier, Secretary Jesli Lapus of the Department of Education issued guidelines for suspending classes in case of an outbreak of the dreaded disease in any public or private schools.
Lapus cited as an example the case of De La Salle University where classes were suspended when it reached Level 3 of the guidelines following the confirmation that the female foreign exchange student tested positive of the virus.
He said the education department is coordinating closely with the health department as well as other government and non-government agencies to instill awareness in the public to prevent the outbreak of the virus in schools.
Loading ...
Reader’s Views