RP decries wrong WHO website update

The Department of Health (DOH) cried foul yesterday over an update made by the World Health Organization (WHO) on its website that linked two cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) to the Philippines.

This developed as DOH epidemiologist Dr. Troy Gepte said the DOH is monitoring two suspected SARS cases at the San Lazaro Hospital and at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Gepte noted that WHO did not consult with Philippine officials before including the two SARS cases in the WHO’s website on June 13 where the Philippines was recorded as having had 14 SARS cases, instead of 12.

The two additional SARS cases are a British couple who were infected with SARS in Hong Kong but hospitalized for pneumonia, the primary symptom of the disease, while on vacation in the Philippines last March 5.

The DOH did not have records of the couple because the WHO sounded the global alert against SARS only on March 12.

"They got the infection and were diagnosed to have SARS outside the Philippines so we think they should not be linked to us," Gepte said. — Sheila Crisostomo