15-year-old Tarlac lass succumbs to SARS

ANGELES CITY — The newest health scare Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that is spreading across much of Southeast Asia has claimed its first victim in the Philippines.

The Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital (CLDH) in Tarlac City reported yesterday the death of a 15-year-old girl in the facility last Monday after exhibiting symptoms of the fatal disease.

The hospital, however, requested the media to withhold the identity of the victim pending the results of more examinations.

Dr. George Martinez of CLDH said that while his patient exhibited all symptoms of SARS, "our difficulty is that guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Department of Health (DOH) limit victims to those who have traveled recently to countries where SARS had already been noted."

He said that relatives of the patient — a high school student and resident of Barangay Kalingkuan in Tarlac City — insisted that the victim had never gone abroad.

SARS is a form of pneumonia which already claimed the lives of at least nine people abroad.

"I had consulted with other experts who found that the case was mysterious and we all suspected it as a case of SARS," Martinez added, noting that the patient’s fever ranged from 39 to 40 degrees centigrade and she never responded even to massive dosages of antibiotics.

He said this was unusual for a 15-year-old. "I would not be perplexed if the patient had been a baby or an elderly person whose system is already weak, but not if the patient is a healthy girl in her teens," he explained.

Dr. Consortia Quizon, chief of the epidiomology department of the DOH central office, told The STAR that the report had not yet reached her office but she urged the media to help in monitoring suspected cases of SARS.

"What we want to do is to prevent secondary contamination. We want to prevent any case of SARS from spreading locally," she said.

"The symptoms, according to WHO, include high fever and one or more respiratory symptoms such as cough, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing."

The WHO and DOH said yesterday that the virus causing SARS might belong to a virus group that causes measles and mumps.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said that initial studies made on samples of a SARS case in Germany revealed that the virus resembled paramyxovirus.

WHO country representative Jean Marc Olive said that samples were taken from a Singapore physician who fell ill of SARS in Germany and studies were conducted in a laboratory there.

"That’s the breakthrough now. There is some evidence but still not conclusive. It has to be confirmed by other laboratories," Dayrit said.

However, he admitted that the WHO has not given an advisory how SARS infection could be cured. Patients are only given supportive therapies.

Meanwhile, the five overseas Filipino workers in Singapore who contracted the disease were declared out of danger and discharged from the intensive care unit of a Singapore hospital. — With reports Sheila Crisostomo, Rainier Allan Ronda