June 10, 2009 — H1N1 Confirmed Cases in the Philippines Balloons to 77, 23 New Cases — RP Leads SE Asia, DOH Secretive Pa Rin sa Flight Details!

10 June 2009

With the addition of the largest single day of confirmed H1N1 cases of 23, the Philippine tally now balloons to 77.  The Philippines now has the unenviable distinction of leading Southeast Asia in the number of confirmed H1N1 cases.

And yet, in spite of this development, the DOH still clings to its by now questionable pronouncement of "no local community outbreak"!  

Here is DOH Update No. 37 straight from the DOH website:

Update No. 37 - Duque To Schools: Continue Reporting Any Unusual Rise in Students With Flu

While 23 Previously Confirmed Mild Cases Now Discharged
10 June 2009

Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III today urged school authorities across the country to continue reporting to their respective local government executives any unusual occurrence of flu-like symptoms among their students especially those who travelled last summer to countries affected with the A (H1N1).

”This effort is part of the readiness of the Department of Health (DOH) to shift from containment to mitigation”, Duque said. 

Duque made this call as he reported today 23 more confirmed mild A (H1N1) cases that are related to the cluster of schools that have already voluntarily suspended their classes due to the novel virus. These schools include De La Salle University Taft, East Asia College, De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, St. Andrews School Parañaque, and Ateneo de Manila High School. The new cases bring the total to 77 mild A (H1N1) confirmed cases. Twenty-three of these 77 mild cases have been discharged.

Duque said that the increase in cases was due to the relentless contact tracing done by the DOH in the five affected schools. Duque also said that the 23 new confirmed mild cases are responding well to treatments.

Duque stressed that there is still no community spread yet as the new cases were all traced to one case that earlier caught the virus during a travel to an A (H1N1) affected country.

The 23 new confirmed cases include 19 Filipinos and 4 foreigners. There are 18 males and 5 females with an age range of 8-49 years old. Seven of the new confirmed cases have a history of travel. The said cases travelled to the US and Japan.

Since May 1, 2009, the DOH has monitored a total of 667 Cases Under Observation (CUOs). Of these, 77 were positive A (H1N1) cases, 85 have pending laboratory results, and 505 were negative and have been discarded. There were 68 new CUOs today.

In their latest report dated June 8, the World Health Organization has reported 25,288 cases and 139 deaths from 73 reporting countries.

Mark Salazar of Saksi filed this report brought to you courtesy of GMANews.tv:

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

I really hope that the DOH will now discontinue its secretive practice of not giving us the flight details of passengers who eventually turn out to be confirmed H1N1 cases.  Secrecy will not help us in the fight against H1N1.  

With the DOH's secretive contact tracing, sila lang po ang nakakaalam ng ginagawa nila.  Kung isinapubliko nila ang mga flight details, matutulungan mo sila ng mga apektadong pasahero na magiging aware na meron silang nakasakay na H1N1 confirmed passengers upang pag-ibayuhin ang pag-iingat katulad ng mas aktibong  self-quarantine, social distancing, at iba pang mga containment measures. 

Just like  in Con-Ass, transparency and truth will give the Filipino public a much better chance of success in fighting the menace of H1N1.