DOH team leaves for MidEast to check on OFWs amid MERS-CoV cases
A Department of Health team left Manila on Monday for the Middle East to check the health conditions of overseas Filipino workers there and to discuss with health officials how to improve the working conditions of Filipinos working in hospitals.
DOH spokesman Lyndon L. Lee Suy said a team of infectious disease experts and an epidemiologist from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), an agency under the DOH, is scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, among others.
The team is expected to return to Manila on Sunday.
“The team will visit select hospitals in the Middle East to check on OFWs and also to see for themselves the infection control measures adopted by these health facilities,” said Lee Suy, also the program manager of the DOH Unit on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases.
At a press briefing, Lee Suy said more than 50 percent of foreign health professionals working in health facilities across the Middle East are Filipinos.
Since the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV), five Filipino health workers in the Middle East have died, he said.
A Filipina nurse, who had asthma and was working in a health facility in Saudi Arabia, died last week and is declared as the 5th Filipino fatality in the Middle East linked to MERS-CoV.
“The DOH team would also like to sit down with OFWs to talk with them about their concerns related to MERS-CoV. The team hopes to discuss with their counterparts in the Middle East how to improve the health conditions of the OFWs, notably their personal protection against MERS-CoV,” Lee Suy said.
Hajj pilgrimage
At the same briefing, Lee Suy also said that the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage “is a source of concern.”
“Discussions have started on how to avoid the pilgrims’ exposure to MERS-CoV and avoid more cases,” he said.
The annual October pilgrimage to Mecca is considered as one of the “five pillars” of Islam.
In a separate interview, Lee Suy said that the DOH, through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, has requested Philippine-based recruitment agencies deploying OFWs to the Middle East to check on the health status of Filipinos every week by calling them directly.
“We have requested that recruitment agencies make sure that the OFWs they have deployed in the Middle East are okay as far as MERS-CoV is concerned,” Lee Suy.
The recruitment agencies agreed to the DOH request to show that they are “taking care” of the OFWs they had deployed as part of their corporate social responsibility, he said.
“Filipino health workers in the Middle East maybe considered high-risk workers. We are requesting them to avoid crowded areas. But let us note that while deaths have been linked to MERS-CoV, many have recovered. We always told them to boost their immune system,” Lee Suy said.
Pinoy MERS cases
On April 15, the Etihad Airlines flight EY 0424 transported to Manila a 45-year-old Filipino male nurse, who initially tested positive for MERS-CoV in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following his exposure to the virus, and his 413 co-passengers to the Philippines from the UAE.
The Filipino nurse returned to the Philippines for a vacation, and unintentionally “brought” with him the mysterious MERS-CoV.
The DOH declared on May 5 all passengers of the April 15 Etihad Airlines flight EY 0424 “MERS-CoV-free” after the “critical phase” of 14 days of MERS-CoV incubation ended on April 28.
The government has budgeted at least P2.07 million to track, test, and monitor all the 414 passengers of the Etihad Airlines flight EY 0424.
Initial test on the nurse in the UAE yielded positive results for MERS-CoV. However, two tests administered by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines found the man to be negative of the virus.
He was eventually discharged from a health facility.
The DOH said MERS-CoV is a communicable disease that may be passed on to others through close contact with a positive carrier. It has an incubation period of 10 to 14 days and symptoms may include fever, coughing, sneezing, and runny nose for two weeks after exposure. —KBK, GMA News
DOH spokesman Lyndon L. Lee Suy said a team of infectious disease experts and an epidemiologist from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), an agency under the DOH, is scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, among others.
The team is expected to return to Manila on Sunday.
“The team will visit select hospitals in the Middle East to check on OFWs and also to see for themselves the infection control measures adopted by these health facilities,” said Lee Suy, also the program manager of the DOH Unit on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases.
At a press briefing, Lee Suy said more than 50 percent of foreign health professionals working in health facilities across the Middle East are Filipinos.
Since the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV), five Filipino health workers in the Middle East have died, he said.
A Filipina nurse, who had asthma and was working in a health facility in Saudi Arabia, died last week and is declared as the 5th Filipino fatality in the Middle East linked to MERS-CoV.
“The DOH team would also like to sit down with OFWs to talk with them about their concerns related to MERS-CoV. The team hopes to discuss with their counterparts in the Middle East how to improve the health conditions of the OFWs, notably their personal protection against MERS-CoV,” Lee Suy said.
Hajj pilgrimage
At the same briefing, Lee Suy also said that the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage “is a source of concern.”
“Discussions have started on how to avoid the pilgrims’ exposure to MERS-CoV and avoid more cases,” he said.
The annual October pilgrimage to Mecca is considered as one of the “five pillars” of Islam.
In a separate interview, Lee Suy said that the DOH, through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, has requested Philippine-based recruitment agencies deploying OFWs to the Middle East to check on the health status of Filipinos every week by calling them directly.
“We have requested that recruitment agencies make sure that the OFWs they have deployed in the Middle East are okay as far as MERS-CoV is concerned,” Lee Suy.
The recruitment agencies agreed to the DOH request to show that they are “taking care” of the OFWs they had deployed as part of their corporate social responsibility, he said.
“Filipino health workers in the Middle East maybe considered high-risk workers. We are requesting them to avoid crowded areas. But let us note that while deaths have been linked to MERS-CoV, many have recovered. We always told them to boost their immune system,” Lee Suy said.
Pinoy MERS cases
On April 15, the Etihad Airlines flight EY 0424 transported to Manila a 45-year-old Filipino male nurse, who initially tested positive for MERS-CoV in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following his exposure to the virus, and his 413 co-passengers to the Philippines from the UAE.
The Filipino nurse returned to the Philippines for a vacation, and unintentionally “brought” with him the mysterious MERS-CoV.
The DOH declared on May 5 all passengers of the April 15 Etihad Airlines flight EY 0424 “MERS-CoV-free” after the “critical phase” of 14 days of MERS-CoV incubation ended on April 28.
The government has budgeted at least P2.07 million to track, test, and monitor all the 414 passengers of the Etihad Airlines flight EY 0424.
Initial test on the nurse in the UAE yielded positive results for MERS-CoV. However, two tests administered by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines found the man to be negative of the virus.
He was eventually discharged from a health facility.
The DOH said MERS-CoV is a communicable disease that may be passed on to others through close contact with a positive carrier. It has an incubation period of 10 to 14 days and symptoms may include fever, coughing, sneezing, and runny nose for two weeks after exposure. —KBK, GMA News
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