RP steps up efforts as swine flu edges closer to pandemic

MANILA, Philippines - With the “swine" flu being only a step away from becoming a pandemic, Philippine officials on Thursday held an emergency meeting to step up measures to prevent the spread of the deadly disease, which so far resulted in the death of 168 people in Mexico believed to be infected by the virus, and a toddler in the US. Malacañang said the Philippines is equipped to battle the disease as it had learned from its successful efforts in preventing the entry into the country of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and the avian influenza. A 24-hour monitoring and command center has been established with the Department of Health (DOH) leading the operations to prevent the onslaught of the disease, according to Malacañang. Airport authorities have also stationed medical personnel to man thermal scanners, while also giving its own frontline health workers medical protection. Expired medicine Aside from reactivating the steps it took to contain the spread of SARS and avian flu in 2003, the Philippine government has alloted additional P10 million to combat the disease. The money is enough to buy 100,000 capsules of the anti-viral drug oseltamivir for 10,000 cases of swine flu. Oseltamivir is used to treat influenza virus A and B sold under the trade name Tamiflu. The DOH presently has close to half a million capsules of the anti-viral drug. However, 54 percent of the 453,660 unused anti-flu capsules had already expired in November 2007, according to the department. But DOH Material Management Division Dave Masiado said that based on the Bureau of Food and Drugs standards, the capsules could still be safely consumed until November 2010. Twenty-one percent of the DOH supply would expire in July this year, 2 percent in August and 6 percent in November, while the remaining 17 percent would expire in February 2011, according to Masiado. The DOH has assured that new stocks of capsules are coming through the courtesy of a number of pharmaceutical companies and the Japan Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) Cooperation Fund. The department identified three hospitals that could accommodate patients sickened with the dreaded flu virus. These medical facilities are at the Regional Institute for Tropical Medicine, the San Lazaro Hospital, and the Lung Center of the Philippines. State power The government might also tap the military and the police to quell possible riots if the disease becomes a pandemic. DOH Secretary Salvador Duque III bared the possibility in a radio interview late Wednesday, saying they are not discounting the possibility of using such "state powers." "Ang recommendation natin kung magkaroon talaga ng pandemic at pagdasal natin na di mangyayari, siyempre kung magkaroon ng lawlessness, mawawala ang peace and order dahil ang tao nagkakagulo, we have to use state powers and engage the services of the military and police to make sure law and order and discipline are maintained. ‘Yan ay kung talagang medyo magulo na talaga ang situation and I’m sure we are part of that and hopefully that will never come, " he said on Thursday in an interview over dzRH radio. [Our recommendation in case of a pandemic – and we pray this will not happen – is to use state powers, including the military and police, to quell lawlessness. That is a last resort and I am hopeful it will never come.] 'Hot' pork Despite the Agriculture department’s temporary ban of hog and pork imports from swine flu-afflicted zones, traders in Pasay City and Baguio City were reportedly caught selling imported pork from North American countries. In Baguio, authorities seized 120 kilograms (kg) of pork from the US, radio dzBB reported on Thursday. DzBB also reported the same day that pork imported from Canada was being sold at a public market in Pasay for a much lower price of P120 per kg. A kilo of local pork costs between P150 and P155. The bulk of pork products imported by the Philippines comes from the US and Canada. In 2008, the Philippines imported pork products from nine of at least 12 countries where the North-American influenza has reportedly spread. Data culled by GMANews.TV from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) showed that last year, the Philippines imported a total of 85,531 metric tons (MT) of pork products from 24 countries.. Eighty-three percent of the total imports or 70,900 MT came from these nine countries reportedly stricken with the virus: United States (26,274 MT); Canada (20,536 MT); France (8,672 MT); Germany (6,521 MT); South Korea (5,138 MT); Spain (3,487 MT); Great Britain (151 MT); Brazil (97 MT); and New Zealand (24 MT). Thirty-one percent of last year’s total pork imports came from the US. Canada ranked second with 24 percent of total imports, followed by France cornering 10 percent, and Germany with eight percent. Phase 5 outbreak Global health authorities on Thursday warned that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther in Europe even as the outbreak appeared to stabilize at its epicenter. A toddler who succumbed in Texas became the first death outside Mexico. Mexico announced it would temporarily suspend all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business from May 1-5. Essential services like transport, supermarkets, trash collection and hospitals will remain open. New deaths finally seemed to be leveling off after an aggressive public health campaign in Mexico — only one additional confirmed death was announced Wednesday night. But the World Health Organization said the global threat is nevertheless serious enough to ramp up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus. "It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in Geneva. "We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them." It was the first time the WHO had declared a Phase 5 outbreak, the second-highest on its threat scale, indicating a pandemic could be imminent. The first US death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night at a Houston hospital. US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted the child would not be the last US death from swine flu. The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, had spread to at least nine countries. In the United States, nearly 100 have been sickened in 11 states. Eight states closed schools Wednesday, affecting 53,000 students in Texas alone, and President Barack Obama said wider school closings might be necessary to keep crowds from spreading the flu. Mexico has already closed schools nationwide until at least May 6. - GMANews.TV, AP