MARK MERUEÑAS, GMANews.TV
06/07/2009 | 12:57 PM
MANILA, Philippines – Over the past few days, third year college student Andre has been exhibiting a “weird" habit. Since classes in his school were suspended, he has been holed up inside his room the entire day, kept a bottle of rubbing alcohol within his reach, and insisted on using only one set of eating utensils.
Andre (not his real name) belonged to a 30-student class at the De La Salle University (DLSU) in Manila. On May 25, classes at the DLSU-Manila commenced and Andre was surprised there was a new girl in class, a foreign exchange student.
Little did Andre know that that would be the first and last time they would be seeing their foreign classmate. She did not appear in class the next day.
Ever since he heard the news on June 3 that one of the latest victims of the influenza A(H1N1) was a DLSU exchange student, Andre was terrified that the infected student was the same student he sat with in class a week before.
The new case forced the DLSU administration to shut down its school for two weeks.
Andre’s brewing fear was ultimately cemented when on Friday, his mom received a call from the Department of Health (DOH) confirming that her son was among the classmates of the infected woman. Andre, as it turned out, was one of the 120 students in the four classes that the Japanese woman had attended.
GMANews.TV tried speaking with Andre over the phone but his older sister said their parents had strict instructions not to let him use the telephone as a precautionary measure.
Experts have said that the mutant virus, which originated in Mexico, though not airborne, could be easily transmitted from one person to another.
“Nag-panic siya at na-schock [My brother panicked and he was in a shock]," Andre’s sister recounted. Three of Andre’s classmates have likewise been informed about the situation.
Apart from sending Andre a prophylaxis medicine – “a cleansing drug" – the Health Department also advised him to continue his self-quarantine, avoid contact with other people, and observe proper hygiene.
Andre volunteered to subject himself to self-quarantine long before receiving the call from the DOH.
It has been 13 days since Andre had his encounter with his new foreign classmate, which means he has gone beyond the DOH’s 10-day observation period without displaying flu-like symptoms.
His family took delight at this positive development, even as his sister assured Andre was far from being sick. “Wala naman siyang nararamdaman physically ever since [He is not feeling bad]."
Creeping backlash
Though Andre was the only one in his family zeroed in on by the DOH’s contact tracing, other members of his household had felt the brunt of the unfortunate news.
His sister – an employee of a company in Quezon City - had already informed her superiors about the situation and had already been advised to skip work until she secures a medical certificate.
She also admitted being the butt of jokes among her office mates. “Ostracized ako ngayon sa office [I feel like I am being ostracized in the office]. I feel so depressed," Andre’s sister told GMANews.TV in a phone interview.
She said the bad news had smacked her in the face. “It’s something you only read in the newspapers. It was something far off. But now its proximity is just bothering," the sister added.
As Andre’s sister put it, the entire household had literally shifted into a “heightened alert."
Andre’s mom – being the “panic-er" of the family – had ordered everyone in the household to take extra dosage of Vitamin C and had set out on a thorough general cleaning of their residence.
The household had also been advised to remain hush-hush about the situation. “If people learn you had contact with a person suspected of having the virus, there is a stigma attached to it," Andre’s sister said in explaining their behavior.
Upon the request of their families, the DOH has never disclosed the identities of the people infected with the disease or those included in the contact tracing. Even their whereabouts are not publicly divulged to avoid undue panic and possible avoidance of these areas.
Overreaction
Andre’s sister said she could not help but view the situation in their home as an “overreaction" to the whole A(H1N1) hullabaloo. Being abreast in the news, the sister said she was well aware that the mutant virus only had a one-percent fatality rate or even less.
Of the 20,000 people that had been infected by the virus since April, around 100 have died while most have fully recovered, according to the World Health Organization. The Philippines has so far recorded 33 confirmed cases with no fatalities so far.
Since May 1, the DOH has subjected 450 people under testing for the mutant virus. At least 341 of these had already been discharge.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque had already said that considering the flu virus’s fatality rate, other illnesses like that brought by the dengue virus should be feared more. Dengue – carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito – has so far claimed 57 lives in the Philippines from January to April 2009.
DOH date showed that dengue kills an average of 300 people a year. In Quezon City alone – one of the most populous cities in the Philippines (almost 3 million) – more than 1,000 people were stricken by the virus for the first seven months of 2008, with 18 of them being killed.
But Andre and his family have nothing to lose anyway if they shift into a more rigid habit of hand washing and avoid contact. The age-old maxim “the best medicine is prevention“ could have never been more appropriate than now. “These precautionary measures that we were asked to observe were for the better, anyway," Andre’s sister said.
Andre’s family said they are grateful that the government through the Health Department was doing its job in ensuring the public is protected from the virus.
The DOH has assigned a number of hospitals across the country to accommodate confirmed A(H1N1) cases. Patients belonging to confirmed cases and cases under observation (CUO) are enjoying free medical services.
Andre’s sister said she would not be surprised if her brother would still be religiously splashing his hands with alcohol and using the same set of utensils even after the DLSU management declares it safe for its students to go back to school.
She said she would like to consider the “flu alert" delivered to their doorstep more as a blessing than a curse.
If there was any consolation to the “domestic scare" triggered by the experience, Andre’s sister said it was that his little brother had become more in tune with his hygiene. “Dati cowboy iyan. At least naging mas malinis siya sa katawan niya." -
GMANews.TV
From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.
06/07/2009 | 12:57 PM
MANILA, Philippines – Over the past few days, third year college student Andre has been exhibiting a “weird" habit. Since classes in his school were suspended, he has been holed up inside his room the entire day, kept a bottle of rubbing alcohol within his reach, and insisted on using only one set of eating utensils.
Andre (not his real name) belonged to a 30-student class at the De La Salle University (DLSU) in Manila. On May 25, classes at the DLSU-Manila commenced and Andre was surprised there was a new girl in class, a foreign exchange student.
Little did Andre know that that would be the first and last time they would be seeing their foreign classmate. She did not appear in class the next day.
Ever since he heard the news on June 3 that one of the latest victims of the influenza A(H1N1) was a DLSU exchange student, Andre was terrified that the infected student was the same student he sat with in class a week before.
The new case forced the DLSU administration to shut down its school for two weeks.
Andre’s brewing fear was ultimately cemented when on Friday, his mom received a call from the Department of Health (DOH) confirming that her son was among the classmates of the infected woman. Andre, as it turned out, was one of the 120 students in the four classes that the Japanese woman had attended.
GMANews.TV tried speaking with Andre over the phone but his older sister said their parents had strict instructions not to let him use the telephone as a precautionary measure.
Experts have said that the mutant virus, which originated in Mexico, though not airborne, could be easily transmitted from one person to another.
“Nag-panic siya at na-schock [My brother panicked and he was in a shock]," Andre’s sister recounted. Three of Andre’s classmates have likewise been informed about the situation.
Apart from sending Andre a prophylaxis medicine – “a cleansing drug" – the Health Department also advised him to continue his self-quarantine, avoid contact with other people, and observe proper hygiene.
Andre volunteered to subject himself to self-quarantine long before receiving the call from the DOH.
It has been 13 days since Andre had his encounter with his new foreign classmate, which means he has gone beyond the DOH’s 10-day observation period without displaying flu-like symptoms.
His family took delight at this positive development, even as his sister assured Andre was far from being sick. “Wala naman siyang nararamdaman physically ever since [He is not feeling bad]."
Creeping backlash
Though Andre was the only one in his family zeroed in on by the DOH’s contact tracing, other members of his household had felt the brunt of the unfortunate news.
His sister – an employee of a company in Quezon City - had already informed her superiors about the situation and had already been advised to skip work until she secures a medical certificate.
She also admitted being the butt of jokes among her office mates. “Ostracized ako ngayon sa office [I feel like I am being ostracized in the office]. I feel so depressed," Andre’s sister told GMANews.TV in a phone interview.
She said the bad news had smacked her in the face. “It’s something you only read in the newspapers. It was something far off. But now its proximity is just bothering," the sister added.
As Andre’s sister put it, the entire household had literally shifted into a “heightened alert."
Andre’s mom – being the “panic-er" of the family – had ordered everyone in the household to take extra dosage of Vitamin C and had set out on a thorough general cleaning of their residence.
The household had also been advised to remain hush-hush about the situation. “If people learn you had contact with a person suspected of having the virus, there is a stigma attached to it," Andre’s sister said in explaining their behavior.
Upon the request of their families, the DOH has never disclosed the identities of the people infected with the disease or those included in the contact tracing. Even their whereabouts are not publicly divulged to avoid undue panic and possible avoidance of these areas.
Overreaction
Andre’s sister said she could not help but view the situation in their home as an “overreaction" to the whole A(H1N1) hullabaloo. Being abreast in the news, the sister said she was well aware that the mutant virus only had a one-percent fatality rate or even less.
Of the 20,000 people that had been infected by the virus since April, around 100 have died while most have fully recovered, according to the World Health Organization. The Philippines has so far recorded 33 confirmed cases with no fatalities so far.
Since May 1, the DOH has subjected 450 people under testing for the mutant virus. At least 341 of these had already been discharge.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque had already said that considering the flu virus’s fatality rate, other illnesses like that brought by the dengue virus should be feared more. Dengue – carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito – has so far claimed 57 lives in the Philippines from January to April 2009.
DOH date showed that dengue kills an average of 300 people a year. In Quezon City alone – one of the most populous cities in the Philippines (almost 3 million) – more than 1,000 people were stricken by the virus for the first seven months of 2008, with 18 of them being killed.
But Andre and his family have nothing to lose anyway if they shift into a more rigid habit of hand washing and avoid contact. The age-old maxim “the best medicine is prevention“ could have never been more appropriate than now. “These precautionary measures that we were asked to observe were for the better, anyway," Andre’s sister said.
Andre’s family said they are grateful that the government through the Health Department was doing its job in ensuring the public is protected from the virus.
The DOH has assigned a number of hospitals across the country to accommodate confirmed A(H1N1) cases. Patients belonging to confirmed cases and cases under observation (CUO) are enjoying free medical services.
Andre’s sister said she would not be surprised if her brother would still be religiously splashing his hands with alcohol and using the same set of utensils even after the DLSU management declares it safe for its students to go back to school.
She said she would like to consider the “flu alert" delivered to their doorstep more as a blessing than a curse.
If there was any consolation to the “domestic scare" triggered by the experience, Andre’s sister said it was that his little brother had become more in tune with his hygiene. “Dati cowboy iyan. At least naging mas malinis siya sa katawan niya." -
GMANews.TV
From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.
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