DOH clears 2 Ilocos patients of SARS

The expert panel of physicians tasked to evaluate local cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ruled out yesterday that the two potential victims in the Ilocos were SARS cases, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said yesterday.

Dayrit cleared the two Ilocos cases even as he warned that health workers will have to be doubly alert at this time because rainy season illnesses like dengue, diarrhea and influenza have similar symptoms with SARS and may cause confusion.

"The panel had reviewed the x-ray results of the two suspected SARS cases and they found out that they are not SARS," Dayrit said referring to a maid from Hong Kong and a computer parts assembler from Taiwan who are now confined at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City and San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.

The two were suspected of contracting SARS after they had fever shortly after they arrived from Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are both in the World Health Organization (WHO)’s "hot list" of SARS infected countries.

Dr. Consorcia Quizon, head of the DOH’s National Epidemiology Center, said the panel diagnosed that the two Ilocos cases had upper respiratory tract infection and not pneumonia, the key criterion defining SARS.

"And maybe, the fever was caused by their underlying illnesses," Quizon said, noting that the Hong Kong maid has brain cancer and the Taiwan assembler has a heart problem.

"With this development, we only have one suspected SARS case and it’s in Leyte," referring to a Filipino, identified as "EK," married to a Taiwanese who developed a fever while under a two-week quarantine after she arrived from Taiwan.

Taiwan gov’t aid

At the same time, the Taiwanese government assured Manila it will extend medical assistance to Filipino workers in Taiwan found to have contracted SARS.

According to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) chairman Antonio Basilio and Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) representative Benjamin Lo, SARS-infected Filipino workers in Taiwan would be given treatment similar to those given to Taiwanese workers.

Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs said the Taiwan government will bear the costs of medical treatment should a Filipino worker be infected with SARS.

The employers of these workers will also not be allowed to cancel the employment contract of the affected workers and the employee will be allowed to continue work after treatment.

For Filipino workers who undergo the mandatory quarantine period and who are later declared SARS free, the quarantine period is considered an official leave with pay and workers covered by standard labor laws will be paid their salaries during forced quarantine.

Those not covered but have labor insurance may apply for subsidy. In addition, OFWs may apply for a consolation amount of NT$500 per day not exceeding NT$5,000 from the city or municipal government.

In the event an OFW dies of SARS in Taiwan, the victim will be extended financial assistance amounting to NT$100,000 in addition to the NT$500 the victim received daily while in confinement.

But Dayrit said there is only a "low chance" that "EK" contracted SARS because she had already been under quarantine for 10 days when she developed a fever. In SARS cases, fever usually develops three or five days after infection.

EK was quarantined at a private clinic in Hilongos, Leyte when she experienced a fever and shortness of breath. She was then transferred to the government’s Eastern Visayas Regional medical Center (EVRMC).

Dayrit corrected reports claiming that EK’s 28-year-old sister and nine-year-old niece had developed SARS symptoms but they have been kept in isolation at EVRMC because they were the ones who accompanied EK to the hospital.

He noted that all potential SARS cases are being monitored by the DOH-created panel which consist of experts from the NEC, World Health Organization, Philippine College of Chest Physicians, Philippine Society of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and the Makati Medical Center. – With Mayen Jaymalin, Eva Visperas