MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Health (DOH) won't yet recommend a travel ban to Hong Kong where a first case of the H7N9 bird flu strain was recently reported.
In his Twitter account, Health Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said the World Health Organization (WHO) and the DOH do not recommend a travel ban to Hong Kong or China despite the reported case.
The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday that according to the southern Chinese financial hub's Health Secretary Ko Wing-man, a hospitalized 36-year-old Indonesian maid is in critical condition due to the bird flu strain.
Ko said the maid had a history of traveling across the border to the mainland city of Shenzhen to buy, slaughter and eat chickens.
#WHO and #DOH do not recommend travel ban to #HK or #China despite #birdfluH7N9 in HK for the first time
— Doc Eric Tayag (@erictayagSays) December 3, 2013 #Hongkong reported first case of deadly #birdfluH7N9 Exposure traced to live poultry farm No known sustained human to human transmission
— Doc Eric Tayag (@erictayagSays) December 3, 2013 The AP report said the H7N9 was first identified April and had killed 45 in China and Taiwan.
Tayag said there are 141 cases 47 deaths to date and so far, two-thirds of the H7N9 cases were males and were aged above 50 years old.
"Deaths were due to very severe pneumonia with multi-organ failure," Tayag said on Twitter.
The health official said symptoms of the bird flu strain include fever, sore throat or cough & progressive difficulty of breathing.
He said migratory birds are known sources of the virus.
"Humans get infected after exposure to chickens that do not appear to be ill," Tayag said.
But he said the Philippines still maintains the ban on poultry imports from China as precautionary measure against bird flu.
Tayag added that the Philippines remains free from bird flu as airports screen inbound travellers for fever in order to conduct early isolation if needed.