Dr. Revelin Cayabyab, an epidemiologist sent here to assess the health condition of the people, made the recommendation yesterday to Mayor Juanito Collado. The municipal council immediately acted on it and convened an emergency session to draft a resolution for the declaration.
Earlier, three villages in Barangay Vacante in this town were placed by the DOH on strict quarantine until April 27 as its 67 households were reported to have had direct close contact with Adela Catalon, the 46-year-old nursing attendant from Toronto, Canada, who was believed to have died of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit also requested the family of Catalon not to hold a wake for their father who died of intra-abdominal tumor while in isolation at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Alabang. The DOH said the elder Catalon is also a SARS suspect.
However, the 600 guests at the wedding in Moncada, Tarlac attended by Catalon before her death no longer have reason to worry as none have reported any SARS symptoms within their quarantine period which ended last April 20.
This was announced yesterday by Dr. Eric Tayag, assistant director of the DOH in Central Luzon.
"There is no cause for worry anymore," Tayag said, adding that even an infant she had cuddled, an 11-year-old boy and her brother-in-law who had acted as her driver after she arrived from Canada have been released from the RITM.
The SARS alert has also been lifted in San Manuel town in Tarlac after a woman and her 11-year-old child who were confined at the RITM recovered from high fever, a known symptom of SARS. Catalon was reported to have passed by this town to drop some balikbayan pasalubong (homecoming gifts).
Nonetheless, Gov. Jose Yap, Sr. ordered the Tarlac provincial health office and its epidemiology surveillance unit (PESU) to monitor the towns of Moncada and Ramos, where some residents reportedly also had contact with Catalon.
Residents of Barangay Vacante have started to feel the stigma of being SARS suspects as some have reported incidents of being humiliated and shooed away in public places. – Eva Visperas