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Friday, January 23, 2004
Second man confined for Sars watch
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
CEBU -- A 41-year-old man who came from China is now confined at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) to see if he has Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
MB (real name withheld), who was diagnosed with fever and flu-like symptoms, was admitted at VSMMC last Wednesday, a day after WL (real name withheld) was also brought into the government hospital's Sars unit for observation.
Zuasula said the main reason for their admission is their history of travel to China and Taiwan, the known countries of origin of the virus that causes Sars.
However, he is hopeful that both patients will be cleared after the test results come out.
WL, 65, has fever, cough and colds but also has a chronic liver problem, while MB has no history of any disease.
But Dr. Junjie Zuasula, regional epidemiologist of the Department of Health (DOH) 7, assured that both MB and WL may be cleared since they "don't fit the case definition" of Sars.
The two are the first suspected Sars cases in Cebu this year. A total of 20 persons have been confined in local hospitals for showing signs of the flu-like illness since last year.
Tight screens
Zuasula also assured that the possibility of the recurrence of Sars in the country is remote.
"The possibility is not nil. But there is tight screening at the airport and there is a continuing surveillance. What we're worried about are the seaports because the screening is not so strict. There are no thermal scanners there," he added.
Regarding the presence of some Chinese businessmen who come to trade in some parts of Cebu City, Zuasula said the proper agencies should monitor them and ensure that they have the permits to come here.
In Hong Kong, health chiefs revealed that 156 possible Sars cases were isolated and tested for the disease in the past two weeks. All have tested negative for the virus and most have been given "all-clear" signal to go home.
China's Guangdong province has confirmed that three people caught Sars this month, in the first recurrence of the disease in six months.
Sars originated in the industrial southern Chinese province more than a year ago, before becoming a global outbreak that claimed nearly 800 lives and infected some 8,000 people in 32 countries. With AFP
(January 23, 2004 issue)
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