DepEd setting up SARS alert network

The Department of Education (DepEd) will be setting up a SARS "preventive alert network" covering all public elementary and high schools all over the country in preparation for the opening of classes on June 9.

Thelma Santos, director of the DepEd’s School Health Education Center, said school principals and head teachers will be tapped as SARS investigators in their respective areas.

They, in turn, will coordinate with municipal or city health officers to find out the SARS situation in their respective communities, she said.

When classes open, Santos said principals and head teachers should enjoin their faculty members to be on the lookout for fever and flu-like symptoms among their students and immediately isolate them, particularly those with relatives who had come from SARS-affected countries.

Teachers are also obliged to enlist their own students to report if any of their classmates appear sickly or feverish.

Under the SARS alert network, school principals and head teachers will be obliged to give their cellular phone numbers to the DepEd central, regional and district offices for easy monitoring.

The DepEd recently issued a memorandum on a SARS public advisory provided by the Department of Health, to its offices nationwide, including all its 164 divisions and all public and even private elementary and high schools.

However, the public advisory was already outdated, having been issued on March 17 yet. It only identified China and Hong Kong as the SARS-affected countries.