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Wednesday, January 19, 2005
City losing P870M weekly from blood illness scare
By Jane Cadalig
BAGUIO CITY -- Local tourism officials said Tuesday that Baguio City is losing around P870 million in revenues per week due to a contagious blood infection that is scaring away potential tourists.
The unrealized revenues are from cancelled hotel reservations and bookings of restaurants and other establishments, said Department of Tourism (DOT) Cordillera Regional Director Pura Molintas in Tuesday's media briefing.
She added the department is also expecting that tourist arrivals in succeeding months would decline by as much as 40-50 percent.
The director said the city should not expect much (visitors) to its upcoming festivities, to include the 10th staging of the Panagbenga, taking into account the scare that was generated by meningococcemia, an acute infection of the bloodstream caused by a mengingococcus now known as the bacteria Neisseria meningitides.
The meningococcus bacteria can cause meningitis or infection of the meningis, the fluid lining the brain; bacteria in the blood; pneumonia; and arthritis.
"We should scale down our expectations," said Molintas.
Molintas, however, added the city was now gaining back its confidence level and that the department, in coordination with other agencies, was fast tracking various revival programs.
She also received reports that hotels and inns in the city have been requesting their employees to go on mass leaves. "The (meningococcemia) scare has also affected the employment (aspect). We have received verbal reports that hotels are now asking their employees to go on leave for at least three to four days."
Molintas said this is due to the plunge in the arrival of visitors, which was earlier reported to have dived to 90 percent. "If we compare it to the same period (January) last year, we could say that it has sharply plunged. This is an isolated case in our statistics."
Nevertheless, Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano expressed optimism the Panagbenga would push through next month, with the commitment from the Department of Health that it would be able to finally contain meningococcemia.
"I see no reason (why) the Panagbenga Festival should be postponed. There is really no cause for alarm over reported cases in Baguio. The meningo scare expressed by some residents of Baguio and Metro Manila merely steams from the lack of knowledge about the disease," he pointed out.
In Manila, health experts said the spread of mengigococcemia could be because vaccination against the bacteria is not part of routine immunization in the country.
Dr. Lulu Bravo, head of the Infectious Disease Tropical Pediatrics of the Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), said in Quezon City "meningococcal vaccine is not recommended to be given routinely due to lack of local data."
While Baguio has confirmed cases of meningococcemia, Bravo does not recommend mass immunization because "there is still no epidemic".
"We only give vaccines when there is epidemic and only to the affected people or those that have close contact with the patient," said Bravo, adding that the last meningococcemia outbreak happened in Davao in 1988.
Aside from the fact that there is no outbreak of meningococcemia, Cecilia Montalban, head of the Department of Medicine of the PGH, said the government could not afford the vaccine because it is very expensive.
Montalban said a vial for multiple dosage, which could be used for 10 people, costs P20,000 to P30,000 while one shot costs P2,000 to P3,000.
Luningning Villa, spokesman of the DOH infectious disease unit, said although the situation in Baguio is "improving" they cannot yet lift the meningococcemia alert level since there are still some cases.
At the moment there are seven confirmed cases of meningococcemia and two meningitis cases in Baguio, she said.
Villa, however, said they are just waiting for the incubation period to lapse and if there won't be any new cases in Baguio, they may lift the alert level.
"There is still one case of meningococcal disease in Baguio."
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit last Monday deferred the lifting of the meningococcemia alert level in Baguio City because of the occurrence of a meningitis case there.
Meningitis is caused by the same bacteria that cause meningococcemia but it is less fatal. (With Sunnex)
(January 19, 2005 issue)
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