Adela Aglipay, 39, of Luba, Abra succumbed to the mysterious illness six days after being admitted at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on March 19 for pneumonia-like symptoms and severe difficulty in breathing.
The Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong and labor officials are now making the necessary arrangements for the repatriation of her remains.
President Arroyo has directed Consul General to Hong Kong Victoria Bataclan to extend all the necessary assistance to Dalingay’s family.
"We’re very sorry to see that first death and we hope that there will be a solution found to this very mysterious disease," the President said while expressing gratitude to the Hong Kong’s Department of Health for the assistance given to the victim when she was in hospital.
"They treat our workers as part of the community. So, we continue to rely on them for keeping our workers safe," she said.
Dalingay is the first overseas Filipino worker (OFW) to die from SARS and the second domestic helper to be afflicted with the fatal illness in Hong Kong. The other patient, Merlita Luzon, is now in stable condition after being confined at the hospital’s intensive care unit over the weekend.
According to Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, health authorities in Hong Kong have yet to determine how Dalingay acquired the disease. But the four nurses in Singapore, earlier reported to be also afflicted with SARS and now undergoing treatment at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital, appeared to have gotten the disease from infected patients.
"The nurses apparently acquired the infection through exposure with infected patients in the hospital despite the fact that they used the necessary protective clothing while taking care of the patients," Sto. Tomas said.
Nine OFWs are now among the 31 confirmed cases in Singapore.
The labor chief said, however, that despite the rising cases of SARS among OFWs, it would still be very unlikely for the Philippine government to ban the deployment of health care workers abroad.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople gave assurances, though, that the foreign affairs department has been actively monitoring the health conditions of SARS victims. He also called on Filipino travelers to avoid all unnecessary travel to Asian countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) called SARS a global threat and warned that while the virus that causes SARS has already been identified, it may take time before an antidote can be developed.
Reacting to the advisory issued by the global health body, the United Arab Emirates tightened entry procedures at all airports, seaports and other entry points in the country, especially passengers arriving from any South Asian country with SARS symptoms. This move will reportedly affect OFWs arriving in the emirates.
Meanwhile, medical sources said that with or without SARS, hundreds of Filipinos die of pneumonia in both government and private hospitals annually.
According to the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), a coalition of employees associations in government and private hospitals, pneumonia was among the most common causes of death of patients confined in government hospitals along with primary tuberculosis and measles.
Now, a mysterious type of pneumonia, they said, has been turning up in hospitals, which, like SARS, rejects treatment from ordinary anti-pneumonia medicines. They emphasized that this so-called "septic pneumonia" should be studied and not dismissed easily. — With Marichu Villanueva, Rainier Allan Ronda, Jose Rodel Clapano