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Friday, December 02, 2005
Editorial: Meningococcemia scare
THOUGH media can do their share in the information campaign the principal responsibility lies on the DOH whose expertise is precisely the answer to assuaging the fears of the public regarding this disease which is claiming not only lives but people's sense of security as well.
Even with the media campaign--or lack of it depending on one's point of view--waged by the Department of Health (DOH) on meningococcemia the scare it inflicts on the general public is quite palpable.
This is evidenced by the recent furor over the four-year-old child suspected of being afflicted with meningococcemia and then confined at a special section for the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) for treatment.
As per latest report the child's condition is improving which means that he/she is either afflicted with the early stages of the disease and was thus spared from being further ill or he/she had another disease entirely.
The doctors at the NMMC are leaning over the second possibility though they have yet to receive the blood samples from Manila to confirm their theories. In any case one is relieved that a child's life was spared from this disease.
Which brings us the question anew of why meninggococcemia is scaring a lot of people when there is treatment for the ailment unlike the more dreaded and still mysterious disease called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
That disease, which had been prevalent in China, Canada and other Asian countries, has yet to be resolved and doctors there have yet to develop a vaccine for the ailment. Local medical authorities in fact have proclaimed the Philippines as mostly Sars-free.
Aggravating the problem is the proliferation of false news through text messaging which is considered the technological equivalent of crying wolf.
In one particularly absurd though unamusing message the text message claimed that the four-year-old patient's condition got worse and the diagnosis was that he/she is suffering from Sars.
That's a nasty blow below the belt and the sender is lucky he/she is covered by anonymity or else the parents of that child could sue him/her of slander. Nevertheless this text message only shows an urgent need for the DOH people to step up their information campaign on the disease.
Though media can do their share of the task as well the principal responsibility lies on the DOH whose expertise is precisely the answer to assuaging the fears of the public regarding this disease which is claiming not only lives but people's sense of security as well.
(December 2, 2005 issue)
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