Sanctions mulled vs bar-hopping flu patient

MANILA, Philippines – The Valenzuela City government is studying possible sanctions on a 20-year-old Filipino-Malaysian hotel and restaurant management student who went bar-hopping in Quezon City while still infected with A(H1N1) flu virus.

Marither Menia, Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian’s public information officer (PIO) and also a member of the local health task force A(H1N1), said yesterday they will consult the city’s legal office to find out whether the patient could be held legally liable for his “irresponsible actions.”

“He has the social responsibility, but because of his selfish intensions he just (went) on with his regular lifestyle without thinking of others (who) might also be infected,” Menia told The STAR.

Gatchalian also criticized the patient for his alleged deliberate intention to “recklessly” mislead the public by giving authorities a wrong address, false contact number and even the date of his arrival in the country from Malaysia. 

Dr. Jaime Exconde, the city health officer, said that apart from bar-hopping, the patient also played basketball with his friends and reported to his classes a day before his self-quarantine period ended.

“According to him, he has already recovered from the disease when he reported back to school but we just can’t really rely on his words,” he said.

Exconde also said what made things worse was the patient has a “broken” schedule and met with a number of students from different sections in just a single day in school.

“But we have already talked to the school physician and the registrar and so far, our monitoring of individuals the patient had contact with showed they have no flu symptoms. But we could only surmise,” he said.

The doctor said that as far as his department is concerned, based on Department of Health (DOH) guidelines, they cannot charge the student due to his irresponsible actions “except maybe for giving false information to authorities. So, we will just wait for the opinion of the legal office.”

City health personnel tracked down the patient, who has recovered from the illness, at a local college last Thursday or 13 days after he tested positive for the flu.

The delay was blamed on the wrong information he gave authorities.

“Maybe due to the social stigma attached to the illness, the patient wanted to just keep it to himself but he also has this social responsibility,” Exconde said.

The patient reportedly arrived from Malaysia last June 6 but gave his date of arrival as June 9. He reportedly submitted for H1N1 check-up on June 12 and was confirmed infected with the flu last June 18, also the day that he attended classes.

“According to him, in just three days after the check-up he no longer had signs of the flu but he could have cooperated with us,” Exconde said.

3 cities cope with flu spread

Following the DOH’s declaration of a low-level outbreak of A(H1N1) flu cases in Metro Manila, the cities of Quezon, Las Piñas and Caloocan are instituting various measures to deal with the spread of the virus.

Quezon City Hall employees and those transacting business with the city government are now required to submit themselves to body temperature screening before entering the building.

Fever detection units will be set up at the three entrances of the city hall’s main building and on all the remaining floors of the 15-story structure, as well as in all offices outside the main building.

The city health department is distributing digital infrared forehead thermometers among city department and office heads.

City health officer Dr. Antonietta Inumerable said suspected flu cases may be referred to the Lung Center of the Philippines or East Avenue Medical Center.

The city government, on orders of Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., set aside P6 million for the purchase of medical supplies and medicines. About P2.4 million was spent on paracetamol tablets, antibiotics and vitamin C supplements.

Of the more than 600 cases in the Philippines , 83 cases are said to be in Quezon City.

In Las Piñas, Mayor Vergel Aguilar created a task force to come up with measures to curb the spread of the virus in the city.

Aguilar said the task force will establish “an effective surveillance system at the city and barangay levels” and supervise the creation of an emergency response team as well as the implementation of quarantine procedures and citywide information and environmental sanitation drives.

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine said that over the past three weeks, 22 flu cases were recorded in Las Piñas.

Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echiverri created a similar task force and ordered a pandemic contingency planning assessment to help schools, barangays and businesses come up with a response to outbreaks based on DOH guidelines and the city health department’s best practices in managing outbreaks.

The task force will also implement strategies to safeguard employees, students and residents and sustain government operations during an outbreak. – With Perseus Echeminada, Rhodina Villanueva, Jerry Botial