Yes, you read the title of my post right. As of this writing we now have 1 confirmed case of Swine Flu in the Philippines. A young girl flew in from Canada and has tested POSITIVE for the deadly virus. While there is no nationwide alert yet for people not to go out of their homes, I strongly suggest people to be a little more cautious than normal. Make sure you wash your hands regularly and try to steer clear from massive gatherings. Full story after the break.
From our good friends over at Inquirer.Net:
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) The Department of Health (DoH) confirmed the first case of A(H1N1) influenza in the country Thursday night.
“The DoH confirms today the first case of A(H1N1) in the Philippines. She is a female traveler who arrived in the country on May 18 from the United States, whose throat specimen tested positive based on results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque said in a press conference at the World Health Organization Regional office in Manila.
According to Dr. Eric Tayag, director for the National Epidemiology Center, the first case is a 10-year-old female, who also visited Canada when she was in the United States.
Tayag declined to identify the research facility where the girl is being quarantined and treated.
“I talked with the president and from the tone of her voice she is very concerned. In fact, she gave me the go signal to conduct this press conference,” Duque added.
The patient is currently being monitored while her immediate household was advised to follow quarantine and social distancing procedures from the DoH, said Duque.
Despite the index case, Duque said: “There is no community outbreak in the country, measures are being done to prevent transmission including quarantine of immediate household of the first case. The first case is something we have been preparing for and a result of public and private sectors’ effective surveillance system.”
Here’s a previous article I wrote that has more tips on how to combat Swine Flu.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
A requirement before entering the office quarters is to wear a flu mask. It should be mandatory to all offices right now.
Hi Sir Wauks! The WHO currently discourages using the name “Swine Flu” to refer to the “A(H1N1) flu” to avoid confusions. The two are different. You can read up it’s Wikipedia entry to find out more, Yun lang po.
i agree, lets all panic buy flu masks, tamiflu, bioflu, neozep, decolgen, biogesic, alaxan, alcohol, hand sanitizers and bio-hazard isolation suits.
don’t go to work, don’t go to school, don’t go to malls/supermarkets/groceries and don’t ride mass transit systems. also avoid gathering more than 1 person per room in the house.
if you’re not practicing proper hygiene now you will have bigger problems than h1n1.
My office had already prepared for this a few weeks ago. They’ve provided us with free alcohol, full stock of hand soap in every washroom, hand sanitizer dispensers in every door within the building, helpful brochures and posters about hygiene, and a beefed-up in-house clinic. I admit, it looked more like something to show off to our visiting American clients rather than a show of concern for us employees but I’m glad they did anything at all. Especially now that A(H1N1) is confirmed to be here in the country.
Poor little girl.
Pingback: Interesting Posts (Week of May 22, ‘09) | New Media Philippines
22 May 2009 — As of 06:00 GMT, 22 May 2009, 42 countries have officially reported 11 168 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 86 deaths. (World Health Organization site)
Yeah, let’s all panic.
actually we shouldn’t be afraid of it… just cautious. dengue is much more serious than this h1n1 virus. its just a flu. i study a street away from the DLSU campus in Manila and well we just had precautionary measures like applying alcohol whenever we get in our college. pretty much there’s no reported case of the virus getting inside our campus. and the 3 students in DLSU are getting well now according to our teachers
for all the people in the world…this virus will mutate into a zombie virus…so be prepared…the zombie apoclypse is coming to earth…haahahaa..