MANILA, Philippines - The government has readied emergency plans in the event of a swine flu outbreak in the country as the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its global alert level for the deadly virus.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) convened a meeting yesterday to map out contingency plans to prevent the entry and spread of the swine flu virus.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told a news briefing in Tacloban City yesterday morning that government agencies are doing everything they can to prevent swine flu outbreaks in the country “but we can’t give 100 percent assurance that it won’t get to the Philippines.”
“We are convening the NDCC chaired by the Secretary of National Defense (Gilbert Teodoro) to review what’s known about this emerging infectious disease and immediately come up with a reaction and response plan,” Duque said.
“We should be alarmed and take precautions because we are now at alert level 4 as announced by the WHO,” he said. He said level 4 means there is already human-to-human transmission of the virus, while alert levels 5 and 6 mean there is widespread human-to-human transmission.
He said President Arroyo has instructed the stepping up of all quarantine measures to ensure that travelers to the Philippines, especially from Mexico, the US and other European countries, are monitored.
He said incoming passengers exhibiting flu-like symptoms would be immediately quarantined. He said state-of-the-art scanning monitors would be used in ports and airports.
“We made sure the stockpile of anti-flu medicine is adequate,” he said, adding the government has about 600,000 capsules for 60,000 possible swine flu cases.
He said the government is also ensuring adequate supply of N95 masks for frontline health workers, who would also be provided with other forms of protection.
Unfair label
The government is preparing various measures to deal with the potential threat of swine flu even as the Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday insisted that the suspect virus is unfairly being labeled as swine flu when there is still no concrete evidence that it had been sparked by an outbreak in the hog sector.
In a press conference yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap argued that the swine flu outbreak in Mexico, the United States and Canada is a human health issue rather than an animal health issue.
The unfairly labeled swine flu, Yap clarified, has been identified by the World Organization for Animal Health as a multi-strain virus that includes human, avian and swine components.
Yap said that according to the international agency, the virus should be more appropriately labeled as the “North American influenza.”
Import ban stays
The Department of Agriculture said it will continue to temporarily suspend pork imports from affected areas in Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Also yesterday, the department revealed that it is closely monitoring reports of incidences of this new influenza strain in France, New Zealand, South Korea, and Spain to find out if there is a need to expand the temporary suspension of pork imports from these areas.
The temporary ban, Yap clarified, would cover only specific areas and not the entire US, Canada and Mexico.
The Philippines does not import pork from Mexico but imports about 20,000 metric tons from the US and about the same amount from Canada, for a total of about 50,000 MT.
However, the pork exports from the US and Canada, Yap clarified, are not fresh meat but are used for processed food manufacturing.
Yap said the Philippines will maintain the import ban as a precautionary measure despite the latest pronouncement by the World Organization for Animal Health that “there is no evidence that this virus is transmitted by food.”
Yap called for a news conference after meeting with hog industry leaders.
The swine flu scare, according to Agriculture Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup, has caused pork prices to drop from P180 to P170 per kilo for liempo and from P160 to P150 per kilo for kasim.
Strict inspection
Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza has ordered all officials of airport and port authorities in the Philippines to implement strict inspection of passengers through thermal scanners to prevent the entry of swine flu into the country.
Mendoza also authorized the purchase of all other needed equipment to ferret out possible carriers of the H1N1 strain of the deadly swine flu virus.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) also yesterday said that it would beef up the inspection of ships before they are allowed to dock.
PRRS, not swine flu
Hundreds of swine in the towns of Lingayen, Bugallon, Binmaley, and Bani, all in Pangasinan, have died due to the alleged deadly disease called “poor reproductive and respiratory syndrome” (PRRS) and not swine flu as reported.
Dr. Benedicto Perez, Pangasinan provincial veterinarian, told The STAR in a phone interview that samples of organ specimen from swine casualties were brought for laboratory confirmation to the Philippine Animal Health Center (PAHC) of the Bureau of Animal Industry in Manila and the result will come out this week.
But Dr. Annie Bares, head of the livestock division of the DA in La Union, disclosed that based on their initial clinical findings, the disease appeared to be PRRS but the final say would come from the PAHC.
Bares said the disease occurred when the abnormal weather condition cropped up early this April.
She explained that the sudden occurrence of rain causes stress to swine, which results in PRRS.
Joint effort
Asia-Pacific nations also began a conference in the country yesterday to discuss preventing the swine flu alert from disrupting international travel.
Transport ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum said they would work with their health ministers to limit the effect of the outbreak on global traffic, DOTC Undersecretary Elena Bautista said.
Bautista said transport ministers have not reported a fall in travel since the outbreak of the disease but stressed: “We must contain this problem before it becomes too big, as in the case of SARS.”
Nineteen of the 21 Asia-Pacific nations are represented at the meeting in Manila but Mexico, where the swine flu scare started, did not send any representatives, Bautista said.
Swine flu task force
Makati and Muntinlupa were among the first cities to create a special task force against swine flu.
Headed by Makati City Health Department chief Dr. Ma. Lourdes Salud, the Makati task force will be closely coordinating with the Ospital ng Makati, the Department of Health and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
Salud said the city’s health personnel are prepared to handle a possible swine flu incident in the city, having been trained to handle a possible avian or “bird flu” outbreak in the past.
“We have trained them before for a possible avian flu outbreak. We just have to upgrade them,” said Salud.
According to Salud, supporting the task force will be the Makati City Health Department, a 24-hour hotline for the monitoring of cases, a hospital-based surveillance system and the tapping of barangays for the reporting of cases.
Salud also said that at the moment, the Makati City Health Department is in the process of purchasing 1,500 anti-flu vaccines at P550 each that will be given for free to city health workers, members of the Makati City police and the Makati Public Safety Assistance (MAPSA). - With Marianne Go, Jaime Laude, Rainier Allan Ronda, Evelyn Macairan, Jun Elias, Mary Ann Reyes, Rudy Santos, Mike Frialde, Rhodina Villanueva, Jerry Botial