The woman, identified only by her initials "CY," died at about 9:30 p.m. Friday at Hong Kong’s United Christian Hospital after being in critical condition for several days. She was brought to the hospital on March 18, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said.
CY’s remains would be cremated but it was not yet known if her ashes would be flown back to the country, Sto. Tomas said.
"CY is married to a Chinese national and is already a Hong Kong resident. But she has children in Mabalacat, Pampanga, so we don’t know yet if her ashes would be repatriated or not," she said.
It was the woman’s husband who informed the Philippine consulate about her death, Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson said.
CY is the second Filipino to succumb to the mysterious flu-like disease in Hong Kong and the third to die abroad. The first was Adela Dalingay, a domestic helper who died on March 24.
Last Wednesday, a male Filipino nurse, identified only as "JP," died of SARS in Singapore. His remains were immediately cremated but have yet to be repatriated. JP got the disease from an 80-year-old patient, Sto. Tomas said.
Two other Filipinos — a male engineer and a Filipina domestic helper — are still confined in a Hong Kong hospital because of SARS but they are in stable condition and may likely be discharged soon, Sto. Tomas said.
Last week, a Filipina domestic helper died in a Hong Kong hospital a day after she was confined, raising suspicions that she was infected with the SARS virus. Health officials later determined that she died of a ruptured appendix.
So far, DOLE has recorded 25 SARS cases involving Filipinos — including the three deaths — in Hong Kong and Singapore, both of which have been hit hard by the outbreak. Twenty of them, however, made a full recovery.
China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada are the most severely affected countries by the outbreak, believed to have erupted in southern China’s Guangdong province in November.
But SARS only became recognized as a global health threat only weeks ago when it began appearing in other countries after the virus was transported by air travelers.
Prior to the outbreak, the Philippines’ seven million Filipino overseas workers were hailed as modern-day heroes.
The government depends heavily on the money they remit to their families back home – which reaches at least $7 billion annually – to prop up the country’s sluggish economy.
But now, many are now seen back home as potential carriers of the mysterious flu-like virus. There are 153,000 Filipinos, most of them domestic helpers, in Hong Kong alone.
So far, the Philippines has recorded three SARS cases. Filipina nurse Adela Catalon died of pneumonia on April 14, followed shortly by her 74-year-old father Mauricio.
A third case was a 64-year-old foreigner, said to be a German, who fell ill but recovered. A fourth case, involving a woman worker who returned from Hong Kong, was reported by the Department of Health (DOH) earlier to be the fourth SARS case but she had been "delisted" after fully recovering from SARS-like symptoms.
A total of 71 people were brought to various hospitals after being suspected of having SARS. So far, 59 had been found negative for the virus and have been discharged, according to official figures from the DOH. The remaining 12 are still confined.
Authorities earlier feared that Catalon may have spread the virus when she returned from Canada earlier last month.
About 250 other relatives, friends and neighbors were asked to undergo a voluntary quarantine in the nurse’s hometown of Alcala, Pangasinan.
The DOH also kept a close watch on 600 guests of a wedding that Catalon attended as a sponsor on April 6 in Moncada, Tarlac. All were given a clean bill of health late last month.
In a bid to ease public anxiety over SARS, President Arroyo shook hands and mingled with the townsfolk of Alcala last Friday after health authorities lifted a 14-day quarantine.
Mrs. Arroyo urged the public not to discriminate against Filipinos who have been quarantined.
Fears of an outbreak have prompted senators to consider resetting the school calendar this year.
Senate President Franklin Drilon filed a bill postponing the opening of classes from June to September to give authorities more time to combat the epidemic.
He said opening school on schedule might unnecessarily expose millions of students to SARS. And if a student gets infected, SARS could spread fast since classrooms are crowded.
He pointed out that Hong Kong and China quarantined entire schools to prevent SARS from spreading.
Under Drilon’s bill, the school year would be reset from June to March to September to June. The school calendar would be patterned after that of the United States.