According to a report on “24 Oras” aired Sunday evening, although the male nurse has since tested negative for MERS-CoV, the Department of Health said he could have passed the virus on to other passengers.
The nurse was first tested in the UAE, with the positive result released after he had already left for the Philippines.
The test result prompted the DOH to quarantine him and his family. They have since been discharged.
Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, program manager at the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said the DOH is aware that releasing the other passengers’ names could make their neighbors shun them out of fear of being infected.
“Pero ang punto kasi namin dito, mas lalo silang hindi iiwasan ngayon kung mapatunayan nating wala nakuhang mikrobyo sa kanila,” he said in the report.
The DOH has managed to track down around 100 people who were passengers on Etihad Airways Flight EY 0424. The rest have yet to heed the call to come in for quarantine and swab testing, prompting the department’s decision to release the names.
Lee Suy said the Health department can ask the Philippine National Police to help convince the passengers to submit to swab tests, which are free.
He added that passengers already in the provinces can proceed to regional DOH hospitals.
Several passengers have already been quarantined at the regional hospital in Cebu. Fourteen of the 400 passengers come from the Central Visayas, the report said.
MERS has an incubation period of 14 days, meaning those infected may exhibit symptoms that include a fever, coughing, sneezing, and runny nose two weeks after exposure.
The DOH said MERS-CoV is a communicable disease that may be passed on to others through exposure or close contact with a positive carrier.
The Health department has set up the following hotlines for any queries or information from the public: 711-1001 to 02, 0922-8841564, 0920-9498419 and 0915-7725621. — JDS/BM, GMA News
