'State of emergency' lifted in Pampanga hospital

GUAGUA, Pampanga, Philippines – The chief of the Diosdado Macapagal Memorial Hospital here lifted yesterday morning the “state of emergency” he declared in the government district hospital following the discovery of a dangerous bacteria in a patient last Sept. 15.

Dr. Eddie Ponio told The STAR the hospital started to take in patients anew at 7 a.m. yesterday after a seven-day disinfection of all parts of the hospital.

“It was a simple, mandatory emergency measure, and not a calamity that we had,” he said, as he lamented reports of panic among some residents.

Ponio ordered the hospital virtually shut down last Sept. 15 after a patient, who suffered from burn injuries from electrocution, was found to have the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa in his wounds.

“The patient was treated in both the emergency and operating rooms which are critical parts of the hospital, so we decided to shut down the hospital until we have fully decontaminated it,” he said.

Ponio described the bacteria as “an opportunistic pathogen which exploits some break in the host defenses to initiate an infection.” – With Dino Balabo