DOH to House employees: Skip SONA if you feel sick

MANILA, Philippines - Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Wednesday advised employees of the House of Representatives who have flu-like symptoms to just skip President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27. "Basta huwag silang papasok kung may nararamdaman, [magiging] maayos ang kalagayan nila [So long as they don’t report for work if they feel sick, they should be fine after a few days]," Duque said in an interview on dzXL radio. Some House employees had been confirmed to have A(H1N1). One of them, a 49-year-old employee, was the country’s first A(H1N1)-related death. Despite this, Duque maintained the A(H1N1) cases recorded in the country have been mild so far. "Ang karanasan, 100 percent mild cases. Kahit dumami ang kaso natin, mild sila. So karamihan gumagaling agad bago umpisa gamutan. Ito na nga [ang] ginagawa natin pero di natin masabi kung magbabago ba [ang] virus...[kung] magiging mas mabangis ba. Kaya di tayo nagpapahinga tuloy monitoring ng virus," he said. [Our experience showed the cases have been mild. But we are still keeping watch because of the possibility there will be a new and more dangerous strain of A(H1N1). So we continue monitoring schools, workplaces and provinces.] As of June 26, the DOH placed the number of confirmed A(H1N1) cases in the country at 861. Of these cases, 634 or 74 percent have recovered. - GMANews.TV