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Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Indian national 1st Sars suspect in city
By Harley Palangchao
BAGUIO -- A 21-year-old female Indian missionary has been confined in isolation at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center since Sunday night after health officials declared her a potential victim of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
Dr. Julius Alcala, chief of the Epidemiology and Surveillance Division of the Department of Health (DOH)-CAR, confirmed to Sun.Star that the Indian national is suspected to be suffering from atypical pneumonia.
Health authorities in Manila, however, reduced to three on Monday the number of confirmed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) cases in the Philippines after a fourth suspect patient tested negative for the deadly virus.
The fourth suspected Sars case, a 46-year-old woman known to the public only by her initials "JP", is to be released from hospital on Tuesday after her chest X-ray results "showed normal findings," Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said in a statement.
"Although we said that JP was a Sars case last Friday, the review of her X-ray showed that it was not pneumonia. She is also responding very well to antibiotics," he said.
"We only have three Sars cases, the foreigner and the father and daughter," President Arroyo said in a speech to local officials earlier Monday.
Probable Sars
Concerning the Indian missionary in Baguio, "she is (indeed) a probable Sars case," said Alcala, adding that she is suffering from fever and cough, which are among the symptoms of the dreaded virus.
Alcala reported that the Indian national arrived in Manila from a still unidentified foreign country on April 26 and traveled to Baguio via an air-conditioned bus that same day.
Dr. Cecilia Brillantes, City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head, said in a telephone interview that the Sars suspect immediately went home to her apartment in a still undisclosed place in the city as soon as she arrived at the Gov. Pack Road terminal.
Prior to her arrival in the country, health officials claimed the Sars suspect had missionary works in India, Thailand and Cambodia.
All health workers at the Contagious Disease Pavilion of the BGHMC, where the Indian missionary is presently confined, were observed to have been wearing surgical masks inside and outside the CDP building.
Brillantes claimed her team has already launched a "contact tracing procedure" to determine the possible places the suspect visited and to establish the identities of the people she came into contact with prior to her confinement.
She denied reports, however, that the 24-year-old female Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) from Dubai, who was also confined in isolation early Sunday morning at the same hospital, is a potential Sars suspect. "The female OFW is not a potential Sars suspect."
She added that the OFW, who has a history of travel to Bangkok, a Sars-hit country, is only suffering from upper respiratory tract infection.
Task force
Dr. Antonio Bautista of the Disease Control and Prevention Division of the DOH-CAR, in an earlier interview, told Sun.Star that the OFW was suffering from cough and having difficulty breathing when she was admitted at the BGH.
Brillantes added the OFW is doing fine but is still under strict monitoring as of Monday.
The local anti-Sars task force, meanwhile, immediately held an emergency meeting with Mayor Bernardo Vergara. It was not immediately ascertained if the emergency meeting was called after health officials confirmed that a suspected Sars carrier is now confined at BGHMC.
In Monday morning's meeting with the department heads presided over by City Administrator Jose Taguba, Supt. Francisco Manalo Jr., city police chief, said Baguio should come up with pro-active measures concerning Sars.
"We do not have contingency plan (yet) against Sars. What are we going to do in case merong makalusot na SARS carrier here?" he asked.
Noli Balatero, executive assistant to the mayor, suggested that barangay officials monitor and immediately report to City Hall the arrival of OFWs in their areas, especially those from countries with cases of Sars.
It was also suggested that the city coordinate with officials of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on the movement of arriving OFWs.
This is part of the contact-tracing procedure now being adopted by concerned agencies. With Cheryl Cruz
(April 29, 2003 issue)
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