RITM doctor suffering from UTI, not SARS

Not SARS but UTI.

The female doctor of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) earlier placed under a 14-day quarantine for manifesting symptoms of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) turned out to be suffering from a urinary tract infection (UTI), a source at the Department of Health disclosed yesterday.

Her chest X-ray showed no signs of abnormality, strengthening the possibility that she is not SARS-infected.

The source, however, was not able to reveal the condition of the male nurse who was also quarantined by the RITM.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit explained the policy is for all medical and non-medical staff of RITM who get sick to be automatically declared a SARS suspect and placed under quarantine until the true cause of illness is determined.

"Any RITM worker who gets sick would be declared SARS suspect because RITM is where we have confined the SARS suspects like the late Mauricio Catalon and those who had contact with him and his late daughter Adela," Dayrit told The STAR.

In the case of the RITM female doctor, Dayrit said he had not received any official report or diagnosis on her case. "But that doctor has to stay quarantined and she would be declared as a non-SARS case only after she would have no more fever after two successive days," he stressed.

RITM director Dr. Remigio Olveda earlier disclosed the doctor and the male nurse, both in their early 30s, had attended to the elder Catalon, the country’s second SARS death and the first reported local transmission.

Last Wednesday, the female doctor developed a fever, a primary symptom of SARS, but showed no signs of pneumonia or shortness of breath.

Olveda added the male nurse had a low grade fever but "for the past 48 hours, he had no fever."

Olveda confirmed that "one of the two medical personnel" had UTI but refused to identify which one.

"They don’t want to be identified. All I can say is that one of them had urinary problem while the other still had a low grade fever," he said.

The elder Catalon, who was earlier diagnosed with colon cancer, succumbed to broncho-pneumonia on April 22, apparently triggered by the SARS virus he contracted from his daughter Adela, who returned to their hometown in Alcala, Pangasinan last April 4. Adela, a Toronto-based nursing assistant, died from SARS ten days later.

Aside from the doctor and the nurse, the elder Catalon also infected his 27-year-old granddaughter Jennifer Catalon who took care of him at the hospital.