DOH ready to face SARS anew

Amid the reappearance of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Taiwan, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit assured yesterday that the government is ready to face off again with the killer virus.

"We will never let our guard down," he said.

"The system is in place. We continue screening and monitoring incoming passengers from overseas, which is the main transmission route of SARS in getting to the country."

Dayrit said he had already talked with Taiwan health authorities concerning the recent SARS victim, a 44-year-old male worker in a military medical research institute, who was afflicted with the disease while performing an experiment last Dec. 5.

"We learn by experience so it pays to listen to them now that they are under attack by SARS again," he said.

Dayrit said the Department of Health had upgraded isolation facilities in regional hospitals to ensure that they can properly handle any SARS patient.

"We pursued the training of our frontline health work force who deal with infectious ailments, not just for the possible second coming of SARS, but also for other possible high-risk diseases that will threaten the future," he said.

The government had kept precautionary measures against SARS despite a declaration last July by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the world is already free of the disease, Dayrit added.

However, the WHO warned of a possible resurgence of SARS during cold season because the virus has not been totally eliminated.

The WHO had lauded the Philippines for its successful surveillance and contract-tracing system, which had prevented the spread of SARS.

SARS has killed two Filipinos –nursing assistant Adela Catalon and her cancer-stricken father, Mauricio.

Since November 2001 when it first surfaced in Guangdong, China, SARS has infected more than 8,000 people around the world.

The death toll was around 700.