GOVERNOR Aurora Cerilles has ordered the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council and the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) to come up with a contingency plan related to the possible occurrence of Influenza A(H1N1) in the province.
The meeting of health officials called by Cerilles took notice of the urgent situation and conducted their orientation and emergency preparedness and planning workshop last week.
The meeting tackled on the health department’s new interim guidelines on A(H1N1), which includes effective intervention to reduce mortality and further morbidity, clinical management, the revised response level guide for schools, and the policy changes from containment to mitigation response to the virus threat.
Health representatives from the regional office Center for Health Development (CHD-9) headed by Dr. Marcos Redoble conducted the said workshop at Hotel Guillermo.
DepEd executives, department heads, those from the private sector and media personalities attended the half-day orientation and emergency preparedness and planning workshop.
Redoble, in his presentation, summed up the difficulty of controlling the A(H1N1) virus even with 90 percent isolation and contact tracing.
This is so because, as Redoble adds, “because of the high level of presymptomatic transmission.”
“In addition, quarantining and contact tracing for influenza would probably be unfeasible because of the very short incubation, from two days and [the] infectious periods of that disease, which is from 3 to 4 days,” the doctor said.
Health authorities do contact tracing to mark out who are in close contact with an A(H1N1) patient sorted out as a case under observation (CUO), who might be tested positive for the said virus.
“The primary purpose of contact tracing is to determine whether influenza A (H1N1) virus has acquired the ability to transmit from person-to-person or has caused sustained community level transmission,” Rodoble explained.
As of date, the CHD said there are 26 A(H1N1) cases in the region, 14 of these were declared negative while 12 CUO’s were classified as positive.
Of those positive, eight came from Zamboanga City, three in Zamboanga del Norte and one from Zamboanga del Sur who has already fully recovered.
Earlier, the IPHO and the City Health Office of Pagadian City have declared that they cannot keep in check, more so control a possible occurrence of A(H1N1) in the province.
But health authorities in the province said they are providing only the right information to the public and or minimize misinformation to avoid panic.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Maria Corazon Ariosa thanked Cerilles for the initiative on A(H1N1), adding their office have already alerted the provincial offices of the social welfare and development and the interior and local government on the said matter.
Last June, Ariosa conducted statistical updates and risk assessment concerning A(H1N1) in the country with the health sector.
REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA
The meeting of health officials called by Cerilles took notice of the urgent situation and conducted their orientation and emergency preparedness and planning workshop last week.
The meeting tackled on the health department’s new interim guidelines on A(H1N1), which includes effective intervention to reduce mortality and further morbidity, clinical management, the revised response level guide for schools, and the policy changes from containment to mitigation response to the virus threat.
Health representatives from the regional office Center for Health Development (CHD-9) headed by Dr. Marcos Redoble conducted the said workshop at Hotel Guillermo.
DepEd executives, department heads, those from the private sector and media personalities attended the half-day orientation and emergency preparedness and planning workshop.
Redoble, in his presentation, summed up the difficulty of controlling the A(H1N1) virus even with 90 percent isolation and contact tracing.
This is so because, as Redoble adds, “because of the high level of presymptomatic transmission.”
“In addition, quarantining and contact tracing for influenza would probably be unfeasible because of the very short incubation, from two days and [the] infectious periods of that disease, which is from 3 to 4 days,” the doctor said.
Health authorities do contact tracing to mark out who are in close contact with an A(H1N1) patient sorted out as a case under observation (CUO), who might be tested positive for the said virus.
“The primary purpose of contact tracing is to determine whether influenza A (H1N1) virus has acquired the ability to transmit from person-to-person or has caused sustained community level transmission,” Rodoble explained.
As of date, the CHD said there are 26 A(H1N1) cases in the region, 14 of these were declared negative while 12 CUO’s were classified as positive.
Of those positive, eight came from Zamboanga City, three in Zamboanga del Norte and one from Zamboanga del Sur who has already fully recovered.
Earlier, the IPHO and the City Health Office of Pagadian City have declared that they cannot keep in check, more so control a possible occurrence of A(H1N1) in the province.
But health authorities in the province said they are providing only the right information to the public and or minimize misinformation to avoid panic.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Maria Corazon Ariosa thanked Cerilles for the initiative on A(H1N1), adding their office have already alerted the provincial offices of the social welfare and development and the interior and local government on the said matter.
Last June, Ariosa conducted statistical updates and risk assessment concerning A(H1N1) in the country with the health sector.
REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA