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A private school and a private hospital may be in trouble for failing to coordinate with authorities on suspected Influenza A (H1N1) cases.
Several students reportedly exhibited flu-like symptom but the school officials did not allow personnel from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) to enter the school premises.
Instead, a school official told Dr. Coralou Kintanar, Pandemic Influenza Incident Command spokesperson, that throat swab samples of the students were already sent to a private hospital for analysis.
The hospital can conduct PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests but is not authorized by the DOH to screen for H1N1 virus.
Only the government-run Vicente Sotto Medical Memorial Center in Cebu City is allowed to do so.
Kintanar said the private hospital is now being investigated for failing to abide by DOH guidelines on H1N1 cases.
The Department of Education (DepEd) is also investigating reports that the private school did not allow DOH personnel to enter the campus to check the students for possible flu infection.
“We will look into that matter. Although I find it incredible that they did not take steps (to coordinate with DOH),” said Education Secretary Jesli Lapus who was in Cebu yesterday.
“The wellbeing of the children is the responsibility of the school. The schools must exercise necessary safeguards or action. If there is a student exhibiting (flu-like) symptoms I do not see why the school would not want a diagnosis,” he added.
Lapus was here to deliver a speech on the accomplishments of the DepEd before the League of Barangays, Bulacan province chapter at the Crown Regency Hotel in Lapu-Lapu City.
“We were given guidelines that have to be followed by public and private schools. This is the DOH-issued interim guidelines,” he added.
Kintanar said the DOH would visit the school and conduct inspection and surveillance measures “whether they allow us or not because it is mandated of us to inspect the school.”
“Based on (guidelines on) emergency powers, DOH can ask anybody to be tested. This is a public health threat,” she said.
The private school is one of seven schools in Cebu where some students are being monitored after exhibiting flu-like symptoms like fever.
Kintanar declined to name the schools except for the Philippine Science High School in Argao town and Talamban Elementary School in Cebu City.
Two others were private schools, while the other was in Naga City and another was in Minglanilla town.
At least 21 pupils had fever when members of the DOH's Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (RESU) went to the Talamban National High School.
“Out of 15 in one classroom, 14 had fever. In the next room, there were three students and the fourth room four students were having a fever,” she said.
Kintanar noted that the disease may have spread because some students who no longer had fever went back to school.
“Probably, they did not want to miss their lessons. We also advised against spitting anywhere and to practice frequent hand washing. But some classrooms are located on top of a hill so they do not have access to running water. But (school administrators) agreed to purchase rubbing alcohol for the students. We also advised them to disinfect their classrooms using chlorine,” she said.
The DOH recently received a call from a concerned parent that about 18 students in an exclusive school had fever.
Kintanar said the health department received a call from a mother whose child, a student of the school, had fever. The mother told DOH-7 that there were at least 42 students who also had fever.
When DOH contacted school officials, Kintanar said they were told that they would have to seek permission first from the parents before DOH representatives would be allowed to enter the premises.
The school official, however, assured them that throat swab samples were taken and sent to a private hospital in Cebu City.
But Kintanar said only the Armed Forces Research Institute for Medical Science in the government-run Vicente Sotto Medical Memorial Center in Cebu City is allowed to conduct PCR test, which initially detects the Influenza A virus.
Since the private hospital is not accredited for testing for the Influenza A virus, she said “there may be some things that are lacking. You would say it (test results) is not very accurate.”
Hospitals accredited to perform specialized laboratory tests are usually given a memorandum by the DOH-7 regulations office.Confirmatory tests are done by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Metro Manila.
“The private hospitals, according to A(H1N1) virus guidelines, are only tasked to take in patients. The DOH collects the swab samples. There is nothing in the guidelines that allow them to perform laboratory tests,” said Kintanar.
Dr. Angelita Salarda, DOH-7 licensing and regulations, was tasked to investigate the private hospital, said Kintanar.
“We hope that other hospitals will also coordinate with us because we would like them to at least follow the guidelines so our tests are standardized and the diagnosis is accurate,” she said.
An official of the private hospital had been warned against doing PCR tests during a meeting with a tourism group which included administrators of private hospitals.
Kintanar said the hospital administrator had agreed to meet with health officials. “We are watching for a uniformity in testing, quality control,” she said.
As to the private school, Kintanar said it should follow the example of the University of Cebu in Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue (UCLM).
“The administrators were transparent about the situation and began containment procedures right away,” she said.
UCLM was the first school in Central Visayas that suspended classes after 18 maritime and nautical students tested positive of the H1N1 virus. About 600 other students, scholars of the Norwegian Shipowners Association (NSA), were quarantined in their dormitory.
UCLM president Augusto Go suspended classes in the whole campus for 10 days based on DOH guidelines on the school level response system.
But the DOH revised its guidelines soon after and discouraged class suspensions since the volume of flu cases nationwide has reached a point where it was impractical to shut down a school each time some students got sick.
Secretary Lapus said that while the H1N1 virus was considered highly contagious, there was no need to suspend day to day activities or classes.
“Until when do we suspend classes? Until the virus leaves us? Or until the virus stops?” he asked.
“We do not have to suspend classes if there is already a community outbreak. The disease would be widespread by then. We only suspend classes when there is a first time transmission and we can still trace the origin of the infection,” he added.
So far, Lapuz said only 12 out of 43,000 schools in the country were affected by the H1N1 virus nationwide out of 43,000 schools. “That is a small ratio,” he said.
There were 206 cases under observation and 33 confirmed H1N1 cases in Central Visayas.
