CEBU, Philippines – Representatives of the World Health Organization met with members of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council yesterday for a two-day seminar workshop on mitigation strategy structuring against Influenza A(H1N1) in Central Visayas.
Qiu Yi Khut, WHO pandemic planning officer said that they aim to help the participants on coming up with mitigation strategies and operational plans in fighting the spread of H1N1 especially in the municipal levels.
The plans that will be gathered from the workshop will be made the guidelines for prevention of the spread of the virus.
Khut said they are working on this in preparation for possible changes that may happen like a community outbreak since viruses may mutate.
The Department of Health earlier reported that WHO advised them to prepare for anything possible to happen like a second wave, which happened during the 90’s when the Spanish flu’s second wave turned out to be more dangerous than the first.
Khut said that this is what they are watching for but it is also possible this will not happen.
She said that there is a need for the government to put in more resources and strengthen preparedness of health personnel on quick response strategies in case of a community outbreak in order to reduce the number of preventable deaths.
According to Khut, the DOH has done a good job in dealing with the virus from the contact tracing to the changes in approach to mitigation.
“They are very pro-active and have done a good job in coming up and implementing new strategies to deal with H1N1,” Khut said.
In Central Visayas, Khut said that there is no need to call for a community outbreak since there is no community transmission and that the number of cases is still controllable and containable and that the cases are mild.
They said that they are just pointing out the experiences of other countries so that they can make a plan to help them on what could happen in the next five to six months.
During the workshop it was mentioned that the virus had spread to more than 100 countries already.
The increasing cases is said to be a reason for a shift in mitigation measures from the initial early detection and containment.
This would reportedly help in minimizing the impact of H1N1 which was declared last June 11 by WHO.
Mitigation response is aimed to slow down the spread of the virus in communities and minimizing transmission to the most vulnerable group. Also it is to help improve health facility preparedness in providing necessary treatment.
Meanwhile, DOH-7 Regional Director Susana Madarieta said that the Research Institute for tropical Medicine informed them that the primer kits for the laboratory here in Cebu will be arriving already and they could probably start doing the tests for H1N1 confirmation tomorrow.
Madarieta said that this would be a big help for them and RITM because they need not send the samples to Manila and have results sooner.
As of now, there are 52 pending samples and 43 confirmed cases in Central Visayas.
Madarieta said that there are still no cases of widespread infection in schools in Cebu although a school has asked for their permission to suspend classes after some students showed symptoms of the flu.
The director said that they did not recommend it but the school notified them about it and Madarieta said that it is already the decision of the school. – AJ de la Torre/BRP (THE FREEMAN)