RP has its first case of A(H1N1)

The Philippines now has its first case of A(H1N1), a ten-year-old girl who traveled to the US and Canada with her family. She arrived on May 18 but did not develop symptoms until the following day, on May 19. Throat swabs were taken and tested on May 20 and on May 21, Thursday, they were found to be positive for the A(H1N1) virus.
The health department said the girl is now on isolation, but is recovering. She has been given oseltamivir, as well as her parents. She had fever, cough, cold and a sore throat at first, but as of Thursday night had only sore throat.
Health officials refused to give more details as the family had requested for privacy.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said President Arroyo was concerned but he assured her that the health department is on top of the situation. Duque gave the press conference from Geneva, where he is attending a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting, using WHO facilities in its Manila headquarters for the Western Pacific Region.

Notes on the presser itself. The usual caveats apply: for background information only.
Duque

Gregory hertel – project leader from dept of epidemic and alert
pandemic response
Dr. linda Milan – who western pacific
Raul Thomas – director, admin and finance, who wp
Dennis lupatan deputy permanent rep of phil mission

The doh is officially announcing the first confirmed case of ah1n1 in rp. a female traveller arriving rp may 18 mon from us and cananda. Throat specimen collected tested at ritm on may 20 wed after she developed fever sore thoat and cough. Today ritmc confirmed specimen tested positive for novel influenze ah1n1 on pcr or polymerase chain reaction using primer sent by us cdc and prevention. Patient immediately started on anti viral oseltamivir and given supportive care. Being monitored no longer has fever or cough but has sore throat.

No community level outbreak in country. Measures being done to prevent transmission starting with quarantine of household close contacts.

This dev’t only shows vulnerability of all countries to threat of ah1n1…we continue to strengthen systems for surveillance, closely coordinating with who and other agencies of gov’t and private sector to effectively combat…drug stockpile sufficient…irrational use can result in drug resistance that causes drug to become resistant in future.

gov’t on top of situation and everyone advised to be vigilant..if you arrive from affected country and develop flu like sysmptoms…immediately consult medical profesional or call doh hotline at 7111001. This situation is evolving globally as what we have been hearing…this situation continues to evolve. We will give regular updates as information becomes available.

Question and answer portion to be taken care of by our experts and nec head dr tayag and usec Mario villaverde who heads the cluster for policy and …support given and making possible conduct of press conference…

Leave for manila first day in morning and hold follow up press conference with media…

(started contact tracing) yes particularly the immediate household…

(identified people on plane, have we reached them) if the questions are directly about the patient herself I think our officials there from the doh can very well handle the questions.

(president’s reaction) she’s very concerned from the tone of her voice. She gave me go signal to conduct this video press conference with you and however as I have informed her we are on top of
situation, we know what we are doing because our plan is very clear, the pandemic preparedness and action plan has been there for a long time and benefited from past experiences and gain from our preparation during time of sars as well as ongoing threat of h5n1 (avian flu). Our preparedness in place and we are clearly implementing the many provisions of our preparedness and action plan.

Female, Filipino.

Tayag: 10 yr old female, may 18 arrived from us travel. She is now being taken cared of. We are not at this time identifying or disclosing the particular health facility in which the first case is being taken care of. She no longer has fever, cough, colds. She only has sore throat.

Villaverde: patient in health facility and mother one closest when it comes to taking care of patient. Other health professionals taking care of her…

Tayag: the family has only one child.

(none of relatives developed flu like symptoms since she arrived) villaverde: none but we are observing them we already informed…moment we have learned of this case as lab result came in and we decided to have emergency meeting this afternoon and decide on what course of action we need to do in terms of responding to this situation…we have as a first action to do immediate contact tracing and that was within the household. This afternoon (test came out positive)

We told you that we will do this on once a day basis but inform if there is anything that needs to be known by the people. So here we are…nothing to be alarmed but we have to remind our people to be vigilant to always practice what we have been advising ever since the start of this international concern, personal hygiene, respiratory etiquette, avoid as much as possible contact with crowds, those things will remain as precautionary measures we have decided to go on even if we already have a case here in phils we will continue to be vigilant when it comes to…entry screening. We believe will be very helpful to contain any further spread of this particular illness in the phils…

Tayag: child arrived may 18, had fever sore throat and cough on may 19 following day, seen at health facility, specimen sent to ritm, gave us results this afternoon…sent to Melbourne as routine procedure for confirming all specimens that will test positive…

We were informed and specimens were taken and sent to ritm…several lines of defense, first when all incoming passengers should go through quarantine screening, and for period of 10 days and every day have to monitor body temperature and report immediately at numbers given. This was what happened because child developed symptoms a day after their arrival

(how long stay in us) family requested confidentiality on this…can probably be traced…we respect request of family…relevant in terms of informing the public…systems and processes within health system in place, now also shifting our action towards contact tracing, we will maintain the systems we have started from time of arrival of passenger of airport. Provide daily update…and this time however because of this first positive case in phils we are also providing additional actions…do contact tracing, family and members of household. Now doing review of passenger list in particular flight and eventually by tomorrow know and try to contact for further observation.

(did she go malling here, where did she go to) tayag: cannot share info at this time. She is now improving…US and Canada now has sustained community level transmission, not so important where patient came from…sustained community transmission (in all states) almost all the states. 48 states.

villaverde: we would like to maintain our message to the public, continue to be vigilant, this time that first case has been reported to phils, we would like to call to observe what we have been advocating in past weeks in relation to ah1n1, that is personal hygiene, frequent hand washing, respiratory etiquette…if postpone travel to affected areas, good option. Also need to strengthen resistance, enough sleep, rest, plenty of fluids, fruit juices, water and so on. Believe able to surmount first case and hope we can contain this.

At this point where we only have a single case and there is no indication right now that we need to postpone the opening of our schools.

(what about family, relatives) Tayag: at this time. They remain symptom free. Given prophylaxis.

villaverde: time to sleep, we have to pray.

(airport where landed) Tayag: we cannot disclose because it gives place where she is right now.