Health assistant secretary Eric Tayag pointed out in an ABS-CBN News report that, so far, this brings the total of confirmed Zika virus cases this year to nine.
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“This brings the total number [of cases] to nine following the three previous cases reported”.
Tayag said all Zika patients had no history of travel to other countries “within a month preceding onset of illness”.
He commented this was not the case previously, when the screening for suspected Zika patients were “restricted”.
She said the DOH has sent quick response teams to the affected areas in the country.
Based on DOH’s initial report, this is unlikely since the new incidents are 10 kilometers away from the index cases in Iloilo.
Those, who contracted the virus, display symptoms like fever, rash, and conjunctivitis, joint pain, muscle pain, headache, and vomiting that last for two to seven days. “All of these cases were reported by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine”.
The 4S Strategy involves “searching and destroying mosquito breeding places; self-protection measures like use of insect repellent, mosquito bed nets and condom for protection against this sexually transmitted infection; seeking early consultation for skin rashes and fever, joint pain or red eyes; and saying “yes” to fogging when there is an impending outbreak”.
World Health Organization Representative in the Philippines Gundo Weiler said the rise in the number of cases only means the health department is proactively testing for Zika.
“Everyone is vulnerable, but those pregnant women should be extra careful since it can affect the child (she is carrying)”, he added. “I will go there to confirm this”, Tayag said.
He also reminded the public that dengue fever, which is hemorrhagic, is more likely to be fatal than Zika.
The DOH also reiterated its call for scaled-up implementation of the “4S Strategy” to effectively combat Zika, dengue and chikungunya diseases. Though all three patients have since recovered from the disease and none of them was found to be pregnant, health officials still issued preventive warnings to residents especially in the area affected.
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The Thai health minister noted that WHO has announced microcephaly, a serious birth defect with a much smaller brain than the normal size of newborns to Zika-infected mothers, a public health emergency that needs global actions to find an effective solution as it could also cause neurological disorders, called the Guillain-Barre syndrome, in patients.
