WHO declaration won't affect sked

CEBU, Philippines - Classes will push through on Monday in elementary, secondary and tertiary levels despite the declaration of the World Health Organization of a swine flu pandemic last Thursday.

Officials believe that schools have already been given enough time to prepare to deal with the Influenza A (H1N1) virus.

Commission on Higher Education Central Visayas (CHED-7) Officer-in-Charge Candelario Aytona said that the WHO announcement shall not cause alarm among students, parents and teachers because there is no community sustained transmission yet in the country especially in Cebu.

The opening of class on Monday in all colleges and universities in the region therefore must finally push through to avoid further interruption in the academic calendar said Aytona.

CHED will first coordinate with the Department of Health for new measures or updates on changes in the level of alerts that is raised in schools.

Aytona however clarified that there are no new measures for A (H1N1) aside from those already implemented and put in place.

He said that his office is still waiting for further announcements from the main office in Manila.

Department of Education (DepEd-7) Regional Director Recaredo Borgonia also said that there will be no new response against A (H1N1) in elementary and secondary schools.

Borgonia said they still follow the alert system created together by the DOH and DepEd which serves as the guide for suspension of classes.

The alert signal is not yet raised to the critical level which is level 3 because there is no reported confirmed case among students in schools in the region yet.

Schools with a Level 3 alert means that there is a confirmed case either among its students or faculty and there is a sudden increase in absenteeism due to flu. In this scenario, DepEd will order for classes to be suspended.

 The highest alert level is 4 characterized by more than one school confirmed to have an influenza A (H1N1) infection within a community. In this situation, classes in schools within the community will all be suspended.

The same alert system is being followed by CHED in universities and colleges. And first to apply was De la Salle University in Manila that has suspended its classes after three of its students were found positive of the flu.

Aytona said that should there be any reports of confirmed case in any of the schools in the region, which he said is inevitable, schools already know what to do to prevent the spread of the virus.

Schedules of classes may be interrupted but CHED will not allow schools to not comply with the required number of schooldays per semester which should be 100.

“They could only extend but definitely not lessen their number of schooldays or they will be reprimanded,” Aytona said.

Suspension of classes once school has started may be applicable only if there is a confirmed case, Aytona stressed.

 DepEd, meanwhile, is prioritizing on surveying all schools in the region to determine which lack water facilities.

“We are currently promoting for frequent hand washing practice among students. It will be put in vain if some schools have no water facilities. We have started surveying the schools that would need to be installed with water facilities. These are usually schools in the upland areas,” Borgonia said.

Borgonia reiterated to schools the urgent need for the installment of hand washing facilities as reports reach him that there are still schools lacking it.

Swine Flu Monitoring

In Region 7, Department of Health reported that the number of Cases Under Observation comes to a total of 81.

Some 15 of which have pending results, four were found positive, but already discharged and the rest were all negative of A (H1N1).

Regional Director Susana Madarieta belied to the public once more that the rumors regarding the death of a H1N1 flu patient is not true so there is no reason for panic.

DOH Appeal

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday appealed for sobriety after the WHO declaration.

Malacañang also allayed fears and apprehensions of the public, saying the DOH is in full control of the situation.

“We call on everyone’s sobriety, cooperation and understanding as together our nation faces this unique and extraordinary challenge. As WHO has repeatedly emphasized, the goal in any pandemic is to save as many lives, reduce deaths and severe illnesses and minimize the impact of the pandemic on society,” Duque said in a statement read by DOH chief epidemiologist Dr. Eric Tayag.

WHO director-general Margaret Chan had elevated the Pandemic Alert Level from five to six – equivalent to global pandemic – after A(H1N1) spread and caused sustained community level outbreaks in at least one or two countries in two WHO regions.

The last time the WHO hoisted this alert level for swine flu was during the Hong Kong flu of 1968.

Duque said the DOH will soon shift its control strategy from containment to mitigation particularly in localities where there are indications of community level transmission.

“To date, we stress that we still do not have community level transmission in the Philippines,” he said.

According to Tayag, the mitigation strategy does not call for the hospitalization of confirmed cases unless they have “progressive symptoms and pre-existing conditions” like diabetes, asthma, hypertension and heart disease which require medical care.

The DOH would also no longer test, a procedure that costs P4,000, the contacts of infected cases or those suspected of having the virus since the infection has already spread.

Tayag added that one who manifests flu-like symptoms “will have to assume that it’s A(H1N1)” and must have to rest at home and limit movement since the virus wanes naturally.

When there is already a community level transmission, the DOH will do away with contact tracing since it renders this impractical because cases could no longer be tracked down.

But Tayag clarified that community level transmission is declared when the “chain of human-to-human transmission of the virus is no longer clear.”

So far, the DOH could still track down cases.

He said that while the infection has been proven to be “very mild” in its present form, the public should not be complacent. A(H1N1) is a “novel virus” and it is uncertain if it will mutate or not.

But Tayag assured the Philippines’ public health system is “better prepared in terms of policies and resources for a pandemic than five years ago” when the world was rocked by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The mortality rate for A(H1N1) is presently at 0.5 percent of all infected individuals. Globally there are now 28,774 cases, including 144 deaths.

Duque added that although a majority of cases have so far been mild, “the picture might change from country to country depending on so many factors that is not limited to the innate nature of the virus.”

The DOH is heeding the WHO recommendations that despite the declaration of global pandemic, there should be “no border closure as it will not be possible to stop it at said points of entry.”

The agency is against imposing travel restriction on infected people as they “may not show symptoms so they cannot be identified from others who are not infected” while it gave “greater emphasis on providing care with a decreased emphasis on stopping the spread of the virus.”

The health chief had called on concerned agencies and local government units to monitor the situation closely and to coordinate with the DOH to be vigilant about unusual and increasing cases of flu-like illnesses throughout the country. – THE FREEMAN