|
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Health officer says OFW does not have Sars
By Victor L. Camion
THE local health office cleared a 34-year-old domestic worker who arrived in Dumaguete City last April 2 from being afflicted with the viral disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
Dr. Erlinda Cabrera confirmed that the OFW from Hongkong who arrived with a bout of fever was found to be suffering from tonsillitis that had caused her fever, sore throat and cough.
Cabrera said Margarita Rodavites of Cervantes Street, Dumaguete City is now okay after she was treated for her ailment.
Rodovites worked in Hongkong for seven years and a week before returning to the Philippines; she received antibiotics and other medicines for her fever, sore throat and cough.
"Since she came from a place with cases of Sars we considered her as a suspect," Dr. Cabrera said in her letter dated April 8, 2003 to Dr. Rosario Marilyn S. Benabaye, DOH-7 OIC.
Dr. Cabrera said her office referred the case "to the higher government health facility/hospital for admission/isolation" but that the facility refused the referral because it was full and was not ready to manage cases like Sars.
In the same fax message, she requested the DOH-7 office for a directive to hospitals regarding the immediate admission or isolation of cases already manifesting signs and symptoms of Sars.
"We would like also to request for a protocol and policies on SARS management to be distributed to our health personnel," Dr. Cabrera said.
The city health officer likewise disclosed that the office is also monitoring a recently arrived foreigner from Hongkong who is also a Sars-suspect.
Dr. Jungie Zoasola, regional epidemologist of DOH 7, in a long distance interview Wednesday said he has directed the Dumaguete City health office to monitor and investigate the Rodavites case.
Zoasola said he believes the domestic helper is negative of Sars unless she had had close contact with a Sars-infected person as a nurse or worker in Hongkong or other countries affected with the viral disease.
He said he will visit Dumaguete on a still unspecified date to have a dialogue with hospital officials, doctors, nurses and attendants for the immediate admission of any Sars patient.
Otherwise, he added, they would be violating the law. Meanwhile the local office of the Department of Labor and employment here assured Friday that it is yet to receive any report of Overseas Filipino Workers from Negros Oriental working anywhere in Hong Kong and other countries being infected with the killer pneumonia.
Local Labor Employment Officer Kendrick Villaluz however did not give an exact figure of the number of OFWs from Negros Oriental now working in Hongkong only saying "there are more than a hundred".
Earlier the provincial government assured to help OFWs from Negros Oriental who are infected Sars.
Capitol Legal Officer Erwin Vergara said that the provincial government is coming up with "appropriate action" to check all OFWs anywhere in Hong Kong and other Sars-infected countries.
"Aron matun-an nato kon unsa sab ang atong ikatabang sa atong mga OFWs nga anaa sa mga nasud nga apektado sa Sars (So we can study what form of help we can offer our OFWs in Sars-affected countries)," Atty. Vergara said.
The legal officer said he is not discounting the possibility that some OFWs from Negros Oriental could be infected with Sars.
Hundreds of OFWs from Negros Oriental are working in Hong Kong and other Sars-affected countries like Singapore, the United States, and Canada, among others.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government, earlier, directed governors and mayors in Central Visayas to adopt measures to include a massive information campaign against Sars.
DILG regional director Roberto Abejero, quoting a directive from Secretary Joey Lina, said LGUs must adopt measures to inform the public about Sars "even if there are no reported cases of Sars in the country".
"We have to make the people aware of the threat," Lina said, adding, "make them part of the contingency plan since we cannot predict if and when it will strike us."
Recent reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) said a total of 1,323 Sars cases have been detected in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.
Some 59 people, including a Filipino domestic helper in Hong Kong, already died of the mysterious killer pneumonia.
He said most of Sars infected persons had a history of recent travel to Sars infected countries mainly Kong Kong, China (Guangdong, Shanxi, Beijing), Singapore and Vietnam.
The DILG secretary said any person with a history of Sars contact and exhibits the signs of symptoms of cough, sore throat, difficulty in breathing over five to six days after the onset of fever resembling influenza, might be positive.
(April 14, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
