CRUCIAL to the handling of this global public health emergency is the sharing of information not only among agencies but also with the public already jittery about the spread of the new disease.
The surprise information last Sunday morning, Feb. 2, 2020, was that on a man in Manila who died from the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease or the 2019-nCoV ARD.
Health officials announced Sunday that a 44-year-old man confined in a hospital in Manila died Saturday due to the new illness that was believed to have originated from Wuhan, China. He was the first known death of someone with the virus outside of China and the second confirmed case of the 2019-nCoV ARD in the Philippines.
The immediate reaction was of surprise because no health official had mentioned this man in past reports about the virus. Officials spoke of a woman who was in a hospital and was the first confirmed infection case in the country. Nothing about this man. And what does it mean for the Philippines that he was the first death outside of China?
World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe considered that question when he said, “This is the first reported (mortality) outside China. However, we need to take into mind that this is not a locally acquired case. This patient came from the epicenter of the outbreak: Wuhan, China, where there has been a very large number of cases.”
Abeyasinghe also described the fatality as a close contact of the first confirmed case in the country.
While Abeyasinghe and the Department of Health (DOH) led by Secretary Francisco Duque III tried to assure Filipinos that the fatality did not acquire the virus in the Philippines, the suddenness of the report on his death makes one wonder if these officials have been transparent about the situation. This lack of transparency will only fuel the anxiety of people already fearful of the risks they face. Raising anxiety levels is not what the WHO or the DOH wants.
With false reports and alarming posts swirling on social media, health officials have to think if they are making the public more anxious by limiting the release of information they give.
The DOH revealed last week that a woman who arrived in the Philippines from Wuhan, China via Hong Kong last Jan. 21and who sought medical consultation on Jan. 25 became the first confirmed 2019-nCoV ARD infection case in the country. They did not say the woman was with a partner who was similarly on quarantine and, as it turned out, was in a worse condition than the woman.
They also did not say who among the persons the two patients had contact with could be at risk of getting infected.
The WHO and DOH surely do not want to cause panic. They can counter fear by not giving the impression they are withholding something.