MANILA - President Arroyo on Friday ordered the Department of Health to step up its monitoring of the spread of Influenza A (H1N1) cases in the country amid fears that a second wave of the virus could affect nine million Filipinos.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the President has instructed the DOH to improve its coordination with the World Health Organization as to real-time exchange of information and data on the A (H1N1) virus.
"The President also ordered hastening of the capacitation of the laboratories of government hospitals for more testing in case of epidemics. She also provisioned that government hospitals to be better prepared to manage complicated cases that may be exacerbated by the virus," Remonde told reporters.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said a second wave of A (H1N1) infections in the Philippines could affect one-tenth of the population or about nine million Filipinos, but stressed there are no indications that the virus would worsen.
“So if our population is about 90 million, a second wave of A(H1N1) could affect as many as nine million Filipinos,” Duque told the Philippine Star during a cluster meeting of mayors from Mindanao under the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP).
But Duque said he recently got assurance from a WHO official that there were no indications that the A(H1N1) virus has mutated into a more virulent strain.
Duque noted that dengue fever and even ordinary flu were more fatal than A(H1N1) in the Philippines.
DOH records show 28 people infected with A(H1N1) have died in the country as of August 28. Nearly 5,000 have been infected though more than 96 percent of the cases have fully recovered.
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