3 Davao patients tested for 'swine flu'

by Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 May) -- Three persons were placed under quarantine at the Davao Medical Center and tested for suspected influenza A (H1N1) infection, health officials said.

Dr. Leopoldo Vega, chief of the Davao Medical Center, said a series of two tests needs to be conducted on the patients before they can be declared negative of the virus.

Swab throat specimens, he said, were taken from the three patients on Monday and sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila.He said that results are expected within 48 hours (either on Wednesday or Thursday) from the taking of the specimen because of the delay involved in transporting the samples to Manila.

De Vega said a patient needs to have two negative results before he can be discharged. If they test negative on the first swab, another would be taken and if the result is still negative, then the patient can be discharged.

If positive, de Vega said, they will have to do contact-tracing. “We have to trace people they were with and if the person traveled from abroad, we’d have to contact trace three seats in front of him and one seat at the back.”

De Vega said one of the patients is a 27-year-old male, a hairdresser, who arrived from Macau and Hong Kong. The other is a 41-year-old female who came from Indiana in the United States.

Vega said the last patient is a 19-year-old male painter from Panabo City who manifested flu-like symptoms after working aboard a Japanese freighter.

"All of them manifested fever, sore throat, cough. But these are also symptoms of ordinary influenza," he told reporters.

He said the three are now confined at a special isolation ward, a building separate from the main hospital complex. But they can be visited by family members, he said.

“The virus spreads by droplets, respiratory droplets. It is not airborne,” he said, as he urged the public to ensure personal hygiene.

But Vega said the public should not be unduly alarmed because the H1N1 virus that has so far struck two Filipinos "appeared to be benign."

"We think this is a benign virus. The two confirmed patients in the country are already on the road to recovery," he said.

But De Vega also noted that there is a need to “balance it with the unpredictability of the mutation of the virus.”

For now, he said, the three patients at the DMC are “doing well.”

Without dismissing the threat of influenza A (H1N1), de Vega urged the public to also focus on the anti-dengue campaign. With the onset of the rainy season, “we must really watch out for dengue and take the necessary precautions,” he said. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)