No ordinary illness

The Filipino nurse said to have tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) when he left the United Arab Emirates for the Philippines turned out negative of the dreaded disease. The Department of Health was able to track down the nurse and the family members who had been in close proximity with him from the time he arrived at the airport, and after quarantine and testing, all of them were pronounced negative of MERS-CoV.

At this writing, of the 418 passengers of the Etihad flight that the nurse took on his way to Manila, 173 have responded to the DOH’s call to have themselves tested for the virus. One hundred have turned out negative, and results are being awaited for the 73. The government has to do double time to reach out to the rest of the passengers, 45 of them foreigners, to be completely assured that MERS-CoV has not entered the country. The virus has a two-week incubation period and has symptoms similar to the common flu—cough, fever, headache, sore throat—though at more severe levels that tend to lead to pneumonia, kidney failure and other life-threatening complications. Time is of the essence; for their own good, passengers who have not undergone testing should immediately present themselves to the DOH.

Given the test results so far, the government has announced that the country remains free of MERS-CoV. Well and good, but it cannot relax its guard. The latest reports say two more foreigners have died of the disease in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, while five others have been infected and are undergoing treatment. Out of 231 persons infected, 75 have died in the kingdom—which incidentally is host to the biggest population of overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East (about 1.5 million). Of the four top OFW destinations, according to a 2013 study by the National Statistics Office, three are in the Middle East—Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, with Singapore the only Asian country in the list.

The extraordinarily high concentration of Filipino workers in the Middle East means there is also a correspondingly more-than-average risk of a number of them ending up with MERS-CoV at some point. The disease is said to be highly communicable, and those in close contact with an infected person—such as the Filipino nurse who tended to an infected patient before his flight back to Manila—are at greatest risk. That’s why it’s also crucial that passengers who were in the same Etihad flight, who spent many hours in an enclosed environment with a person who was exposed to the virus, must get themselves immediately tested at a hospital.

The government, however, must do more than put hospitals and testing centers on heightened alert. It has to reach out to the large OFW communities in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and other countries that maintain air and other forms of mass travel with the Middle East, to warn them of the threat of the spreading disease and the ways by which they can protect themselves from it. The Philippine embassies in those countries cannot be allowed to conduct themselves in a business-as-usual fashion; the rapid transmission of the virus means they could have an outbreak among OFWs in their hands should early cases not be detected pronto and treated accordingly.

Are there enough doctors and medical personnel in those embassies to ensure that proper medical care and attention are available to OFWs coming down with MERS-CoV? Are contingency measures in place to check and quarantine those who have been exposed to coworkers, patients or expatriates showing symptoms of the disease? In the Philippines, is there a program in place to ensure that any MERS-CoV cases coming in through the country’s airports and other points of entry are immediately contained and treated, and the general population warned to keep itself informed about this new threat to public health?

MERS-CoV is no ordinary illness, given its high and rapid fatality rate and the fact that OFWs are the biggest population at risk so far. The Aquino administration and the DOH have their work cut out for them. But the public must also do its part: by being extra-diligent regarding personal health and hygiene, by immediately undergoing testing in the face of severe flu-like symptoms, and by keeping themselves—and their OFW loved ones, especially those posted in the Middle East—updated about public programs and precautions designed to prevent the virus’ spread.