No OFW infected with Ebola so far, says DOH

Health authorities have not yet monitored any overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who has been infected with the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed over 5,000 in West Africa.

“As of this time, no Filipino has been infected by Ebola,” said Dr. Lyndon See Suy, spokesperson for the Department of Health (DOH), in a press conference Thursday.

Still, he said the government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), is sending a rapid assessment team to Ebola-hit nations in West Africa where some OFWs work as health professionals.

Lee Suy said Filipino heath workers in areas with recorded Ebola cases are not working on the frontline against the infectious disease, but are instead hired by private companies to supervise the health of its workers in a specific area.

Nevertheless, Filipino health workers from West Africa will still have to undergo a 21-day quarantine period once they arrive in the Philippines.

In the same press briefing, Dr. Mari Rose Delos Reyes of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Disease (PSMID) said that Filipinos with low exposure to the virus may be exempted from the quarantine.

“We don't need to quarantine everybody coming in from these areas,” she said, referring to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali, the countries with high number of Ebola cases.

She said people with low risk of getting Ebola are those who had no direct contact with body fluids from an Ebola patient and those who had traveled on an aircraft with a person manifesting Ebola symptoms.

Still, Lee Suy said the DOH has made quarantine mandatory for all OFWs returning from West Africa because they cannot immediately determine if an OFW is a low risk or high risk case.

For his part, Ludovico Jurao Jr., PSMID's president, reminded OFWs that it is their “social responsibility” to call DOH if they are showing symptoms of the infectious disease.

“Meron kang responsiblidad sa pamilya mo at sa community mo, if ever meron kang sintomas,” he said. —KBK, GMA News

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