MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Health is tracking down 17 passengers of the plane that carried the 10-year-old girl who tested positive for Influenza A(H1N1) – the first confirmed case in the Philippines.
Taiwan health officials, meanwhile, said yesterday one of their three confirmed cases of A(H1N1) involved a woman returning from the Philippines.
Dr. Mavic Vasquez of the DOH’s Bureau of Quarantine said they have determined the identities of the 17 passengers – all Filipinos – based on the manifest obtained from the airline company.
“We are lucky that the patient was (seated) way back in the plane near the wall. There were 17 possible persons with six-hour exposure (to the patient) and (situated) within six feet,” she said at a press briefing.
Vasquez said the 17 passengers are advised to undergo self-quarantine for up to 10 days, the period during which infected individuals manifest symptoms.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday announced that a 10-year-old Filipino girl from the United States was the first confirmed case of A(H1N1) in the Philippines.
The girl had also traveled to Canada where there are also confirmed cases of A(H1N1).
She arrived in the Philippines with her mother on May 18 and complained of fever, cough and sore throat the following day. The patient was brought to an undisclosed hospital.
The swab throat samples taken from the girl were examined and confirmed at the DOH’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) Thursday afternoon.
DOH Undersecretary Mario Villaverde noted that throat specimens were also taken from the mother but these tested negative for A(H1N1).
Villaverde added the girl’s father and her other housemates have been notified of the situation and are now undergoing self-quarantine at home.
“It’s a good thing that the patient stayed mostly inside their house after arriving, probably because of the time zone difference, and she developed fever the following day. Her contacts are thus limited,” he said.
“The patient is now recovering well. She no longer has fever and cough but still has sore throat,” he said.
But the DOH will send a team of experts to the patient’s house to conduct a “more thorough assessment of the household contacts” who have already been given prophylactics, an antibiotic.
The doctors, nurses and other health personnel attending to the patient have also been given antibiotics and instructed to put on protective gear like face masks to prevent them from contracting the virus.
It was not clear yet how the girl contracted the virus.
“She traveled to many cities in the US but because there is already an established community level transmission in the US, even if we identify the cities, it becomes immaterial because it is almost in the entire US,” Villaverde added.
Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control, meanwhile, said a 30-year-old woman who had been traveling in Manila from May 16 to 20 with three relatives tested positive for A(H1N1) influenza.
“She was feeling unwell while in Manila. She went to a clinic on Thursday after she developed a fever. Her daughter was also screened after she too was running a fever,” said CDC spokesman Shih Wen-yi.
Test results for the five-year-old girl were scheduled Friday.
philstar.com
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