DOH on the lookout for unusual flu cases

MANILA, Philippines - On the heels of reports about the 11th patient who contracted a new Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like virus abroad, the Department of Health (DOH) is now on the lookout for unusual severe pneumonia cases in the country.

Health Assistant Secretary Enrique Tayag said they have not received any report about unusual and grave cases of pneumonia since the World Health Organization (WHO) sent an international alert about the novel coronavirus (NCoV) in September 2010.

But since there are now 11 cases of human-to-human transmission of NCoV worldwide, Tayag said the DOH would be reminding hospitals to report such cases.

“We are calling on all hospitals to report to us if they have patients with severe pneumonia who tested negative in (regular) routine tests for influenza, bacteria and virus,” he said.

Tayag said that hospitals must send extra laboratory specimens to the DOH-run Research Institute for Tropical Medicine so they could check the cause of the illnesses.

NCoV was previously unknown in humans until it infected a Qatari man who was diagnosed in Saudi Arabia last September.

In its Twitter account, WHO posted that as of Feb. 13, there were 11 confirmed cases of human infection with NCoV and five of them have died.

Most of the patients had history of travel in the Middle East while three were diagnosed in Britain. The last case was recorded in Britain.

WHO said that NCoV “is from the same family of viruses but quite different from SARS.”

SARS had shaken the world when it emerged in China in 2002, killing around 800 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide. Among the symptoms associated with SARS and NCoV are fever, coughing, severe respiratory illness and difficulty in breathing.

According to Tayag, while the first case was recorded in Saudi Arabia, it still remains unknown where the virus originated.

“There may be cases in other parts of the world but they are not yet detected. That’s the reason why the WHO sent an alert in September, so that countries would look for cases,” he said.