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BY PAUL M. ICAMINA Special
Reports Editor
THE Philippines can ill-afford to
have run-away cases of the Novel Influenza A(H1N1), said Dr. Lyndon
Lee Suy, head of the Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases
Program of the Department of Health (DOH).
There is no vaccine for A(H1N1)
yet, but when it is expected to come out, hopefully this year, it is
estimated to cost P1,000 per treatment of two doses.
Giving vaccines to the elderly,
or those 60 years old and above, will cost P3.6 billion, an amount
that is equivalent to about three years of the DOH budget, Lee Suy
said.
The computation is based on the
priority groups for vaccination to be given to those considered
highly at risk: the very young (5 years old and below), the elderly
and health workers.
There
are about 3.6 million Filipinos considered elderly, and vaccinating
each of them will cost a total of P3.6 billion, Lee Suy said during
a forum on the Novel Influenza A(H1N1), or what has been wrongly
called swine flu.
The problem is compounded when
those 5 years old and below are included as they make up about 15
percent of the 90 million Filipinos.
As it is, he said, the country is
experiencing “mild” cases of Influenza A(H1N1) of more than
1,700 cases as of yesterday but there are many issues that have yet
to be addressed.
A national task force is in place
but questions have been raised whether similar versions are in place
at the provincial and municipal levels, he points out.
All secondary and tertiary
hospitals should be prepared for more cases, Lee Suy said, but not
all of them have isolation wards.
And the 1.5 million anti-viral
medicines in the DOH stockpile may not be enough if panic buying
starts, he said, pointing out that the P1,500 treatment course is
given free to confirmed cases partly to discourage uncontrolled
buying.
And while there are vaccines
against seasonal influenza, there is none yet for the Novel
Influenza A(H1N1).
The big question, Lee Suy said,
is whether Philippine health facilities will be able to cope with a
full-blown epidemic.
“This is the reason for our
strong advocacy on personal hygiene and the protection of vulnerable
groups,” he said. “This is because each potential infectious
person shares households with the young, the elderly and those who
have previous illnesses.”
Public awareness of the potential
impact of the novel flu is at an all-time high, he said, so much so
that all fevers are now considered suspect by the ordinary Filipino.
But in the past two weeks, he
lamented, the public’s trust of the Health department has been
tarnished because of allegations that its efforts are politically
motivated.
“The DOH has shifted from
containment to mitigation, or slowing down the rate of
transmission,” Lee Suy said. “But it is site-specific and not
country-wide.”
For example, in islands where
there are very few cases, containment will still be the focus, he
told The Manila Times. In Metro Manila, where there is low-level
transmission, the mitigation mode is in place.
The country should prepare for a
worst-case scenario, he said. “We will be expecting more cases,
and we’ll never be able to contain it,” Lee Suy said. “These
will be mild cases instead of severe ones.”
“There is no way to contain it
anymore,” according to Dr. Davinio Catbagan, Director of the
Bureau of Animal Industry. “We need to monitor the situation, to
watch out for a second wave of infections.”
“We should not be apprehensive
of a second wave, or even a third or fourth wave,” said Dr. Jaime
Montoya, head of the Philippine Council for Health Research and
Development. “The Novel Influenza A(H1N1) is already here. What is
important is what to do about it, to focus on treatment and
developing a vaccine which hopefully should be available this
year.”
“If you ask me, should we
be scared? Definitely not,” said Dr. Veronica Chan, head of the
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Emilio Aguinaldo
College. “From laboratory experience, the H1N1 virus was here
before. We should just take normal precautions.”
“Enjoy life,” she added. 
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