DOH still monitoring 12 suspected SARS cases

The Department of Health (DOH) is still closely monitoring 12 individuals nationwide on suspicion that they are afflicted with the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

This developed as Dr. Ma. Consortia Quizon, head of DOH’s National Epidemiology Center (NEC), cleared of SARS a seven-year-old Korean girl who was rushed to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last Monday afternoon.

The Korean girl was brought to the RITM because she had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius. It turned out that she was suffering from bronchitis and urinary tract infection.

Quizon said the 12 SARS suspects, who are now under quarantine in various hospitals nationwide, could have come from SARS-infected countries and manifested the symptoms of the disease. Their profiles were not immediately available.

"Experts are now closely monitoring them. They are only SARS suspects. We want to be very careful in declaring who is a SARS case and who is not," she said.

Quizon said that from March 17, when SARS cases started to peak in other countries, to April 27, a total of 60 people were admitted in various government hospitals and one in a private hospital after experiencing SARS-like symptoms.

But as of last Sunday, only 12 of them have remained under quarantine in public hospitals. None was reported in private hospitals.

In a report, the NEC said eight of the SARS suspects remain in isolation at the RITM, two at the San Lazaro Hospital, and one each in Regions 6 (Western Visayas) and 7 (Central Visayas).

The NEC is also monitoring a domestic helper from Hong Kong who returned to Isabela recently. The returning overseas worker was reportedly suffering from SARS-like symptoms.

Meanwhile, results of initial chest X-rays of two SARS suspects monitored in the Ilocos region showed that they were suffering from upper respiratory tract infection.

"I think they have already (undergone) X-ray twice since early this week. It is likely that they are not infected with SARS because they have systemic viral infection or upper respiratory tract infection," said Dr. Troy Gepte, a DOH epidemiologist, in a phone interview.

One of the two SARS suspects is a female overseas worker who returned home from Hong Kong last week. She is a native of Pangasinan.

The DOH has transferred her to the San Lazaro Hospital from a state-run hospital in La Union to better manage her condition because she is suffering from brain cancer.

The second SARS suspect is a female computer part assembler who arrived from Taiwan last weekend. She earlier had voluntarily submitted herself to quarantine in a hospital in the Ilocos region, but has been brought to the RITM.

Quizon said both patients have been "afebrile (without fever)" for the past two days. — With Ding Cervantes