An Indian national who arrived from HongKong is under observation for possible Influenza A(H1N1) at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City, Gov. Isidro Zayco said last night.

Zayco said he has ordered Dr. Luisa Efren, Provincial Health Officer, to ensure close monitoring of the case.

She said it is not confirmed that the patient has A(H1N1) and a specimen has been sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine for verification.

Efren said her office is investigating who the Indian national, who is in his 40s, had come in contact with since he arrived, as a precautionary measure.

“We will track down the people he came in contact with to make sure they go into self quarantine,” she said.

She said that when the suspected A(H1N1) patient arrived in Bacolod four days ago he had no fever.

But yesterday he was brought to a private hospital with fever and the emergency room personnel found that he fit into the criteria of a possible A(H1N1) patient so they sent him to the CLMMRH, Efren said.

Travelers arriving from A(H1NI)-affected countries are advised to  undergo self quarantine for 5 to 10 days, she said.

48 CASES IN RP

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, in a press statement on the DOH website, yesterday said that the total number of cases of A(H1N1) in the country have now reached 46 after confirming 13 more cases during the weekend.

“We have reached 46 and although it’s a big number we are fortunate that all of these are just mild cases which are consistent with most of the cases of A(H1N1) we are seeing in other affected countries,” Duque said.

The 13 new confirmed cases include eight Filipinos and five foreigners. Five are females and eight are males with age range of 12-63 years old. Four of the cases are students of the De La Salle University, while one is the first confirmed case from the East Asia University. Eight of the 13 new cases have history of travel to the US, Japan and Canada.

ALL GETTING WELL

“All are responding well to treatment. Contact tracing is still on-going,” Duque said.

Duque announced that with the more complete profile of the A(H1N1) virus seen in local cases, which is mostly mild in nature, the DOH is set to shift its control strategy from containment to mitigation.

“This means that we only do early detection and aggressive treatment of cases as they come especially for those with high-risk preexisting conditions.  Those manifesting with mild symptoms can be managed and monitored at home so that only patients at risk who develop complications will have to be hospitalized,” Duque explained.

With the mitigation strategy, Duque said that government will also veer away from contact tracing and instead focus on controlling the disease as is being done for other emerging and reemerging diseases in the country

“H1N1 will now become part of our Influenza-like Illness (ILI) surveillance activity and one of our notifiable diseases.  It offers little benefit to do extensive tracing of this virus when it is clear that the disease can be passed on to others at a rate faster than it will ever be  humanly possible to find the contacts,” Duque said.

Duque cited the efforts of other affected countries such as the US and Mexico where the number of cases have been increasing so fast.  These countries have managed to curb down the case fatality rate due to A (H1N1) through early diagnosis and antiviral treatment as well as targeted and appropriate management of patients at risk for developing flu complications.

Duque added that with the more complete mild picture of the virus observed among positive cases in La Salle and East Asia University, there may be no need to order school closure in the future even with a confirmed case.

JUST STAY HOME

“Sick students can just be asked to stay at home while they have the symptoms, if mild, so that they do not pass on the virus to others.  Of course, they should be closely monitored by their parents and guardians while they are given supportive treatment at home.  School authorities can also contact DOH and report an unusually high number of influenza-like illnesses in their schools so that we can immediately investigate,” Duque said.

In their latest report dated June 3, the World Health Organization reported 21,940 cases and 125 deaths from 69 reporting countries.  Countries which are now included in the list of A(H1N1) affected countries are Barbados, Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia.*CPG

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