New flu virus eyed in outbreak

Government health experts are trying find out if the influenza virus that downed students of seven Catholic schools in Metro Manila in recent days could have been caused by a new strain.

Meanwhile, an infectious disease expert at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila told The STAR yesterday the airborne virus seemed to have zeroed in only on Catholic schools because the latter’s classrooms were mostly air-conditioned and conducive to the spread of an airborne virus.

A virus can sometimes mutate and transform into a new and more deadly strain and that’s why the Department of Health (DOH) is continuously monitoring the recent outbreak in several Catholic schools, Dr. Concepcion Roces, chief of the National Epidemiology Center, said.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said anyone afflicted with an influenza strain could easily recover by taking sufficient amount of water, eating nutritious food and getting enough sleep.

Roces said the DOH has the technology to check whether the virus that downed a big number of students was the common virus or a new and deadly strain.

"Government health authorities are already collecting blood samples and throat swabs from the infected students," she said. "It’s more probably that if it’s a new strain, it is more serious and this is the reason why we are conducting continuous surveillance."

Roces said the DOH can easily respond to any situation in case the respiratory disease that had spread in seven Catholic schools was caused by a new virus.

"Vaccines are readily available in case it’s a new strain of influenza," she said.

Dr. Melecia Belmonte of PGH’s infectious disease unit urged school authorities to install exhaust fans in classrooms so the students can have proper ventilation.

"There is no limit to the transmission of the illness," Belmonte said. "As long as the infected person is suffering from flu and colds, he could transmit it to others because the virus remains in the air, particularly in an enclosed environment."

Belmonte said the DOH should find out the type of virus that caused the influenza so appropriate countermeasures could immediately be undertaken.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said at least 2,212 students of Catholic schools in Metro Manila were reported to have suffered from a flu-like symptom.

Meanwhile, Catholic bishops asked Filipinos yesterday to pray for the immediate recovery of the more than 2,000 students who were afflicted with influenza in various schools in Metro Manila three days ago.

In the meantime, Monsignor Ding Coronel, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), urged the government yesterday to give the public a complete data about the virus that downed students of Catholic schools.

"We are also concerned why there are no reports on public school children being infected with the virus," Coronel said.

Coronel said there had been an overreaction to reports that the virus was spread by international terrorists had unleashed biological warfare in the country.

"It may only be a coincidence," he said. "It is terrorist hysteria."

Coronel said the country’s present situation can be likened to that in India, where there had been a false alarm of a plane hijacking, or that in the United States, where a passenger had slashed the throat of the driver while an interstate bus was traveling.

"We are caught overreacting," he said. "Somehow, this is tied to the terrorist problems." — With Sandy Araneta