WHO to strike RP off SARS list by May 20

The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to strike the Philippines off from its list of countries with "medium level risk" of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) on May 20, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said.

Dayrit said the WHO is expected to make the announcement next week after finding that the SARS threat to the country has become "negligible."

However, the decision would still depend on local developments until then, he said.

Health and airport officials from across Southeast Asia, China and Canada begin a two-day conference today at Clark Field, Pampanga, to come up with more ways to prevent SARS from spreading.

Edgardo Manda, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority, said countries should adopt a "common approach" to SARS.

Conference organizers said they hope the forum will also help restore confidence in the airline industry, which has been hit hard by the outbreak believed spread by air travelers.

Last week Manila strongly protested the Philippines’ inclusion in the new classification, drawn up by the WHO to reflect the threat of SARS in a certain country more accurately.

President Arroyo said the classification did not accurately show the local situation.

The Philippines’ inclusion prompted Kuwait, Lebanon, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates to bar the entry of Filipino overseas workers.

WHO representative Jean-Marc Olive said "all SARS cases (in the Philippines) have already been isolated."

"For the moment, there is no risk for those who would like to work or travel to the Philippines because all the cases have been contained," he said.

He urged local authorities to continue strict monitoring of all ports of entry, screening travelers for symptoms of the mysterious flu-like disease.

Consortia Quizon, chief of the Department of Health’s (DOH) epidemiology division, added it could be possible that a Filipino-American SARS suspect in South Korea who recently arrived from Manila does not have the virus.

The man did not manifest any symptoms during his month-long stay in the country, Quizon said.

"It was only when he landed in Seoul that he was found to have some symptoms. But our contact tracing so far has indicated that he had no contact at all with any possible sources of SARS in the Philippines. He never even visited any local hospital," she said.

Nevertheless, the DOH is still trying to find out more about the man’s contacts in the country, Quizon said.

"We are very, very far from any SARS emergency because early on we acted as if it was an emergency," she said.

"In other countries there was a steep rise in the number of cases because they were not able to cut transmission from the initial cases among hospital workers which spread SARS to the local communities."

Quizon also downplayed fears of Filipino overseas workers bringing SARS into the country and starting an outbreak. "Hospital workers are the ones mostly at risk, and most of our (Filipino overseas workers), at least in Hong Kong and the Middle East, are not hospital-based."

While the Philippines is classified as a medium risk country alongside Singapore, the WHO did not specify that the SARS spread has been contained. "But that’s the limitation of the classification," Quizon said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said Filipinos overseas workers might be discriminated against as a result of the classification and has ordered the country’s overseas missions to act on complaints.

There are about seven million Filipino migrant workers in several countries. – With Pia Lee-Brago, Sheila Crisostomo