Fil-Brit and cousin now at VSMMC: 2 toddlers under watch for H1N1

CEBU, Philippines – The Department of Health Central Visayas (DOH-7) reported two new cases of people under observation for possible infection of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus.

A three-year-old boy and his one and a half-year-old cousin are now quarantined since Sunday at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center. They will be in isolation until the results of their tests will come out today.

The swab samples of the two children have already been sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Manila.

The half-Filipino, half-British three-year-old boy is on vacation in Cebu with his Filipina mother and British father.

They are from Manchester City in England. On their trip here, they stopped over in Hong Kong more than a week ago.

They are here for a three-week vacation.

DOH-7 Regional Director Dr. Susana Madarieta said that the boy developed fever only on his sixth day in the country.

“But since he developed the symptom within the incubation period, he must be taken under observation,” Madarieta said.

The boy was first brought to the South General Hospital in Naga on Sunday morning along with his cousin, who also had a fever.

The two children were later referred to the VSMMC, which has been identified as the hospital that will take care of possible cases of infection of the virus.

The boy’s cousin was also quarantined because it was learned that both were almost always together as playmates.

Madarieta said that both are doing well now and don’t have fever anymore.

The Pandemic Influenza Incident Command has already created a new system of delivering the specimen taken using a throat swab.

Dr. Madarieta admitted that there were some hitches in the flow of transportation of specimen in the past, which caused delay on the first two reported cases at the DOH.

Madarieta said that they have started applying the system where the Bureau of Quarantine in Cebu will be the one to facilitate the delivery of the specimen to Manila.

The BOQ in Manila will then pick it up and deliver it to the RITM.

Through this, Madarieta said, they will be able to prevent delays in their operation.

please understand

Madarieta, meanwhile, asked hotel owners to understand the current situation even if the problem has already affected them.

“We understand their sentiments over cancelled bookings of tourists. But they also need to understand that however the media report about the phenomena, tourism industry will naturally go down since locally, we also discourage traveling unless it is urgent.”

Madarieta said that it is also the advice of the World Health Organization to delay travels.

“This is to reduce the spread of the virus not to put their business down,” Madarieta said.

“Nevertheless, we are asking their cooperation since most of foreign travelers stay in hotels for lodging. We ask them to report immediately to DOH if they have suspected cases of the infection,” she said.

Madarieta said that it is an imminent pandemic that’s why anytime, they expect that a carrier will be able to enter the country.

“But we will try our best to intensify monitoring and focus on measures where we could contain the virus.”

crew of ships checked

As part of the tightened security amidst the H1N1 virus scare, the Bureau of Quarantine checked the crew of three cargo vessels yesterday morning, which all came from abroad.

BOQ Regional Director Emmanuel Labella said that due to the flu, they personally went up the vessels to inspect the health of the crewmembers, which they do not usually do in normal days.

Labella explained that every time a cargo or passenger vessel from outside the country docks in Cebu, the ship captain submits a maritime declaration stating that all his crew are well.

Labella said that it is the usual routine and they trust the captain’s pronouncement, because his crew and ship is his responsibility.

However, Labella said that due to the heightened alert of the H1N1 virus, the inspection team of the BOQ personally went up the ships and checked before the crew would be allowed to go down.

The team checked M/V Elena, a container vessel from Singapore, which arrived at 6:50 a.m. and the LPG-C Corsica tanker which arrived from Malaysia at 8:10 a.m. and docked at the Cebu International Port.

The ships had 16 and 18 crewmembers respectively that Labella said were all negative of any symptoms of the flu.

Another ship, TB Eutebe Star from Indonesia, reportedly docked in San Fernando yesterday and Labella said that they have sent a team there also to check the crew.

Labella said that since there were only a few to be inspected, the team from the BOQ used strip and aural thermometers.

He said that they will be given notice prior to the arrival of a ship and no one is allowed to go down unless he passes the checkup.

Labella said that they did not wear protective gear like the N95 masks, because if there are those suspected to have symptoms of the disease, the captain of the ship is already instructed to call in advance so that they would be made aware of the situation.

He also said that, if there are crewmembers that would be displaying symptoms of the flu, he will be brought to the VSMMC for quarantine.–/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)