Image via WikipediaJOHANNA CAMILLE L. SISANTE and SOPHIA DEDACE, GMANews.TV
06/24/2009 03:47 PM
Is there a doctor in the House?
A third employee of the House of Representatives is suspected of being infected with the Influenza A(H1N1) virus that has sickened one other employee and triggered the death of another one last Monday, a lawmaker said.
The lower house hogged the headlines Tuesday after one of its employees became the Philippines and Asia's first fatality related to A(AH1N1) virus that has so far downed 604 people based on the latest tally of the Department of Health Wednesday.
DOH said the number swelled to 604 after it listed 131 additional Influenza A(H1N1) cases Wednesday, the biggest increase in a span of 24 hours since the department monitored confirmed cases on May 21.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, however, emphasized that 464 victims had already fully recovered, bringing the recovery rate to 77 percent.
At the House, Health committee chair Arthur Pingoy said the third suspected case works at the Ramon V. Mitra building, the same building where the A(H1N1)-infected 49-year-old woman who died from heart failure used to work.
The House was closed until Sunday in order to disinfect the building.
More House employees who had contact with the index case will be tested for the novel virus in the coming days, he said.
"We're expecting na may mga positive pa tayo na case after makuha yung result [We're expecting to discover more positive cases after we get the results]," Pingoy said in a telephone interview with GMANews.TV Wednesday.
The other employee confirmed on Tuesday to have been infected with A(H1N1) had already undergone self-quarantine, he said.
Meanwhile, House Deputy Secretary General Ricardo Roque - who confirmed the two cases in the House including the 49-year-old fatality - has been confined at the Makati Medical Center for bronchitis, a member of his staff said Wednesday.
Roque's staff Nora Rancatan, however, said in a phone interview that Roque tested negative for the novel virus.
The 49-year-old woman who died Monday was an employee of the House's committee affairs department. According to Health officials, the woman had a pre-existing heart disease that worsened her infection.
Of the new 131 cases, 66 are female and 65 are male. Their ages range from two years old to 67 years old.
One hundred seventeen of the new cases are Filipinos while 14 are foreigners. Nineteen of the new cases also had history of travel from countries affected by the flu virus strain.
Low-level community transmission
The latest development came a day after the DOH declared a low-level outbreak of the A(H1N1) virus in several portions in Metro Manila, where majority of the country's cases are located.
Duque, however, quickly clarified that the classification was limited only to areas with schools that have confirmed A(H1N1) cases, particularly those that have third-level transmission.
"In Manila, we have a low-level community outbreak. Our low-level community transmission is not for the entire Metro Manila. Our [declaration for that] is area specific, school specific," the DOH chief added.
A community outbreak happens when, for example, someone who was infected with flu outside the Philippines arrives in Manila and starts infecting inhabitants of that city.
Duque said schools with low-level transmission are located in the cities of Manila, Quezon, and Parañaque. He said the method for the said areas had been shifted to mitigation from containment.
- GMANews.TV
From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.
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