June 10, 2009 (Part 2); 23 new cases of A(H1N1) in our country

Today marks the most significant increase in the number of confirmed A(H1N1) cases in our country, as 23 new cases were announced by the Health department this afternoon.

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

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.

There you have it! You guys have just been fed!

God bless you guys! Stay safe! Peace out! The Wizard was here... :)

Comments, questions and suggestions are highly appreciated! :)