Wednesday, May 27, 2009

DOH confirms 4 new A(H1N1) cases; public told to stay calm

S. DEDACE and M. MERUEÑAS, GMANews.TV
05/27/2009 | 05:11 PM

(Updated 7:14 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines - The number of Influenza A(H1N1) cases in the Philippines has climbed to six after the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday confirmed that four more people contracted the dreaded virus.

Despite this, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque said there is no reason for the public to panic, noting that the government is still at the top of the situation.

“There is no need to panic and there is no need to wear facial masks because there is no outbreak in the country. We expect the confirmed cases to rise due to our effective monitoring measures. We have prepared well for this," he said in a press briefing Wednesday afternoon.

Duque said two of the new cases were a 55-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, both Filipinos, who had contact with two Taiwanese who tested positive for the disease when they returned to their country after attending a wedding in Zambales province.

The other two were a 13-year-old boy who came from Hong Kong, a one-year-old girl who traveled from US.

“There are new confirmed cases of A(H1N1) as of May 27, 2009. These are laboratory confirmed cases," Duque said.

“The two children have histories of travel to affected countries Hong Kong and the US. Both adults are contacts of the confirmed case from Taiwan," he added.

The DOH official said the 13-year-old boy had already recovered while the three others are being observed in undisclosed health facilities in the country.

The announcement came hours after Health Undersecretary Mario Villaverde said that the DOH was already coordinating with Japanese authorities on reports that a Filipino-Japanese boy who returned to Japan contracted the disease while in the Philippines.

Villaverde said the DOH was still uncertain on how the Filipino-Japanese boy contracted the disease and in what part of the country he stayed in.

Earlier, the DOH confirmed two cases involving a 10-year-old girl who traveled from the US and Canada and a 50-year-old woman who came from Chicago. The two have already recovered from the illness but remain under quarantine.

Villaverde advised the public not to panic because the first two A(H1N1) patients only manifested “mild" symptoms.

WHO update
In its latest update, the World Health Organization (WHO) said A(H1N1) has spread in 46 countries that have 12,954 laboratory confirmed cases.
Ninety two of the 12,954 people have died of the disease – 80 in Mexico , 10 in the US , and one each in Canada and Costa Rica.

Ninety eight percent or 12,692 cases are found in 10 countries – seven in the Americas ; two in Europe and one in Asia . The countries are:
* US – 6,764
* Mexico – 4,174
* Canada – 921
* Japan – 350
* United Kingdom – 137
* Spain – 136
* Panama – 76
* Chile – 74
* Costa Rica – 33
* Peru – 27

The Americas remains to be the region with the highest number of cases with 94 percent of the world's total cases to 12,138; followed by Asia with 3.07 percent to 398 cases; Europe with 2.7 percent to 360 cases; and Oceania with 28 cases and Middle East with 26.

In the Americas, the US remains the country with the highest number of infections with 6,764 cases followed by Mexico with 4,174; Canada, 921; Panama, 76; Chile, 74; Costa Rica, 33; Peru, 27; Ecuador, 24; Colombia, 16; Brazil, 9; El Salvador, 6; Argentina, 5; Guatemala, 4; Cuba, 4; and Honduras, 1.
In Asia, Japan has the most number of cases with 350; followed by South Korea with 21; China with 20; Malaysia , Thailand , and the Philippines with two each and India with one case.

The WHO’s data does not yet include the four new cases reported in the Philippines.

In Europe, the UK has recorded the most number of infections with 137 cases followed by Spain with 136; Italy, 19; Germany, 17; France, 16; Belgium, 7; Norway, 4; The Netherlands, 3; Sweden, 3; Poland, 3; Switzerland, 3; Finland, 2; Turkey, 2; Russia, 2; Austria, 1; Denmark, 1; Greece, 1; Iceland, 1; Ireland, 1; and Portugal, 1.

In Oceania, Australia has 19 cases, while New Zealand has nine. In the Middle East, Kuwait has 18 cases, while Israel has eight.

No case has so far been reported in Africa, based on the WHO’s latest report. - GMANews.TV

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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