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Saturday, May 10, 2003
Editorial: New suspected Sars case
Local officials of the Department of Health (DOH) have considered a flight attendant, who is now confined at the North General Hospital with her one-year-old son, as a suspected Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) case.
The hope now is that health officials have already learned their lesson from the case of the late immigration officer RL and will handle the flight attendant’s case better. That should go, too, for other local government officials.
The tricky point here is how to be clear as to the status of CS (Sun.Star is withholding the flight attendant’s name to protect her and her family) and prevent misimpressions, misinformation, and worst of all, panic.
First off, CS is still a suspected Sars patient, not a Sars patient.
She was initially reported to have fever, coughs and colds—just a few of the symptoms found in persons afflicted with the dreaded disease. She also has a history of travel abroad (she just arrived from Hong Kong five days before she got sick).
That information, though, should be balanced off with this: that she no longer had fever (as of Thursday) and was responding to medication well. Also, an x-ray showed she had no signs of pneumonia.
Because of this, health officials are continuing to observe CS and conducting further tests. A more definite pronouncement on CS’ illness will be announced later yet.
In the meantime, government officials and the public should speak and act consistent with CS’ status as still a suspected Sars case. This early, some officials have been reckless in their statements and some people are spreading uninformed stories.
To neutralize these, health officials must conduct an aggressive information drive. A daily, even twice a day, bulletin on CS’ status (and that of her son, who also has fever, coughs and colds), will help. So, too, further clarifications on how the Sars virus spreads.
In short, their concern must not only be to prevent the spread of the Sars virus (they have quarantined those who have been in close contact with CS) but also to prevent the spread of wrong information about her case.
List is still growing
With the sanctions imposed by the
Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on D’ Rough Riders last year, many thought that the list of the deaths and injuries caused by the buses of this northern Cebu firm will no longer grow.
They were wrong, however.
Last Wednesday, a Rough Riders bus killed a 70-year-old woman standing along the highway in Medellin town. The driver was earlier reported to have created a scene in the town earlier that day, which shows a temperament not safe for driving.
Last month, a Rough Riders bus was also reported to have ran over a three-year-old girl in Borbon town, mangling the child’s body in the process.
So what will LTFRB officials do this time around?
(May 10, 2003 issue)
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