Aquino: Ebola a 'paramount concern' for Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The deadly Ebola virus has not reached the Philippines but President Benigno Aquino III assured on Monday that preventing its outbreak here is a top priority of the government.

In his speech at the 65th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, Aquino said  outbreaks of illnesses and diseases like the MERS-Coronavirus and Ebola are among the greatest challenges the world is facing today.

"For the Philippines, specifically, the fact that we have ten million of our countrymen living and working abroad makes these kinds of outbreaks a paramount concern," Aquino said.

The President recalled that when the MERS Coronavirus broke out and spread in the Middle East earlier this year, the government's "first thought immediately went to the more than a million Filipinos living and working in the middle East."

Aquino said the matter was complicated further when the country received belated news that an overseas Filipino worker with the virus had arrived in the country and travelled to his home province.

"You can imagine how critical the situation seemed: it was necessary to track down every person on that flight, quarantine, and test them at the soonest possible time. Thankfully, the test results came back negative," Aquino said.

The President said the incident gives the Philippines a chance to examine and improve its health systems. It also led to his signing of an executive order forming an interagency task force to manage emerging infectious diseases in the country.

Aquino said the government should know how Filipinos can be best educated about disease outbreaks with spreading fear and panic.

An efficient and safe way to monitor Filipinos' exposure to diseases and their repatriation should also be determined, Aquino added.

"I speak for myself and my government when I say that we will continue to exert every effort and undertake all possible initiatives to find answers to these questions and keep our countrymen safe and healthy as pandemics threaten to spread," the President said.