Travel to Cambodia has not been banned despite the outbreak of a mysterious respiratory disease there even as the situation is being monitored, Malacañang said yesterday.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said many countries were surprised with the new disease, Enterovirus (EV-71), but officials of the Department of Health (DOH), Bureau of Quarantine and airport officials were closely monitoring arriving passengers, especially those coming from or had a stopover in Cambodia where 61 children had reportedly died because of the outbreak.
Valte said Health Secretary Enrique Ona had also alerted hospitals about the matter.
Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Quarantine doctor Ali Agama said they strengthened their surveillance and monitoring for all incoming passengers and those with fever would be examined thoroughly.
Agama said they would get the passenger’s history of travel abroad and give him/her medical checklist to fill up so they could follow up in the coming days.
Agama added that if a passenger is afflicted with the disease, he/she would be referred to the DOH for possible confinement at the San Lazaro Hospital or the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Alabang.
The DOH declared the Enterovirus as a notifiable disease in an effort to prevent its possible spread.
Ona said making EV-71 a notifiable disease would compel doctors and all other medical practitioners nationwide to report individual cases or an outbreak of disease related to the virus.
Among the diseases caused by EV-71 are mild hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), acute respiratory disease, acute flaccid paralysis (polio-like) and the deadly brainstem encephalitis.
Doctors said HFMD is described as a self-limiting illness characterized by fever and accompanied by skin lesions or rashes.
The DOH said that EV-71 infections do occur in the country, but are not properly documented. Fatal EV-71 infection is still very rare in the Philippines, DOH noted.
The DOH and World Health Organization (WHO), however, clarified that the Cambodian EV-71 infection was of the encephalitis type and not HFMD.
WHO said affected Cambodian children were generally stricken with fever followed by rapid respiratory deterioration and impaired consciousness.
Death occurred 24 hours from hospital confinement.
As a precautionary measure, government health experts urged the public to observe proper disposal of baby diapers or human waste, strict personal hygiene and regular hand washing.
The virus is known to be excreted in the feces since it is found in human intestines.
The DOH also advised parents and day-care personnel to clean and disinfect toys and teaching tools that are shared with other children.
Ona said there is still no travel restriction to and from Cambodia, but incoming passengers will be subjected to thermal screening upon arrival in all international airports as a routine quarantine procedure.-The Philippine Star (July 11, 2012)
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