PRO-7 tracking down one passenger in Cebu; DOH using H1N1 protocol in MERS

HEALTH authorities yesterday said they are prepared to carry out provisions of the Quarantine Act of 2004 in case any of the passengers of the Etihad Airways flight refuses to be examined for possible infection of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS).

Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, manager of the DOH’s Emerging Infectious Diseases program said the DOH, through the Philippine National Police (PNP), was prepared to carry out the country’s quarantine rules to compel a person to yield to them for the safety of the general public.

“We will have to bodily carry them (if they resist) as a last resort but we have not reached that point yet,” said PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac.

“We could compel civilians in line of general public safety. If the people are at risk, the police can enforce persuasive measures.” he said.

Sindac said the police would persuade the passengers to cooperate for their own good.

Once the police locate one of the infected persons, Sindac said the PNP will immediately secure the area and relay the person’s location to DOH.

Republic Act 9271 or the Quarantine Act of 2004 came into force as an offshoot of the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndome) from November 2002 to July 2003 which caused an eventual 8,273 cases and 775 deaths.

A total of 92 cases, mostly suspected SARS cases, were recorded in the Philippines of which 14 were probable cases. Two of these – a father and his daughter in Pangasinan — were confirmed resulted in death.

As of Monday, the DOH said 113 out of the 414 passengers were tested negative.
According to officials of the DOH in Central Visayas (DOH-7), 22 people are under observation as of yesterday. Four of the latest cases were from Cebu. The four were passengers of Etihad flight EY0424.

DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas said they are waiting for the swab test results of the 10 passengers in quarantine at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center. Eight of them were passengers of Etihad flight EY0424 while two were OFWs from the Middle East who voluntarily submitted for testing after showing symptoms of MERS.

“The first volunteer experienced loose bowel movement, but now his condition is getting better. The other one just voluntarily went to the hospital for consultation,” said Dr. Gerardo Aquino, chief of hospital at VSMMC where six negative pressure rooms or specialized isolation rooms were blocked off for suspected MERS cases.

Aquino said they are ready to open an additional 10-bed isolation room if the need arises.
DOH-7 officials said one passenger is confined in a private hospital in Cebu City while police are tracing another passenger.

Renan Cimafranca, chief of the DOH Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (Resu-7), said they are coordinating with the Bureau of Immigration in tracking down the passenger.

He said that the treatment protocol adopted for the MERS is the same as the H1N1 or swine flu.
As a virus, Cimafranca said, there is no anti-biotic treatment, but what health service providers do is to manage the symptoms. The common symptoms of MERS are flu-like symptoms.

“If they have cough and cold or fever, we give the patient standard treatment for these symptoms,” said Cimafranca.

He said MERS patients who are untreated risk developing pneumonia which could be fatal.

Those suspected to have contracted MERS need to go to a DOH hospital to be tested for the virus. Standard laboratory test, according to Cimafranca is the throat and nose swab.