Region 1 health execs on alert versus ‘AFP’

SAN FERNANDO CITY — The Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) of the Department of Health is on alert for cases of "acute flaccid paralysis (AFP)" to prevent the entry of polio virus in the country.

Gaylyn de Sesto, a RESU nurse, told The STAR that AFP is composed of 15 notifiable diseases, which include cholera, dengue, typhoid fever, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria pertusis, measles, leptospirosis, malaria and meningococcemia.

"We are on active surveillance of AFP cases to isolate wild polio virus and to prevent the entry of polio in our country because we are currently polio-free," De Sesto said.

"This AFP surveillance is being conducted nationwide and it started (because of) reports of a polio outbreak in our neighboring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia," she said.

De Sesto said children below 15 years old who are manifesting AFP symptoms are subjected to rectal swabs, the specimens of which will be sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Manila for bacteriologic isolation and examination.

"Regardless of any diagnosis, as long as the child got paralysis symptoms, either in the lower or upper extremities, the child will be investigated to isolate the polio virus. The results of the examination usually come out within two weeks," she said.

De Sesto said they have directed all hospitals and rural health units to report cases of AFP to them, particularly children suffering from acute gastroenteritis.

"So far, there has been no positive yet in all the specimens that we have gathered," she said.