Health Issues

My Son Won 3rd Place At Men’s Health All-Terrain Race

Yep, I am indeed a proud mom. My 15 year old son won the 3rd place at yesterdays mountain bike race in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. It was organized by Men’s Health Magazine tagged as “All Terrain Race, Pushed Your Limit”.

It was Father’s Day yesterday, my son told me that its another way of celebrating the day. It wasn’t like just an ordinary race because most participants brought their families. Yesterday, he made his dad proud for winning the race but he wasn’t able to get his trophy because they leave early. And he was not informed of his rank before they leave the trail in Sta. Rosa. He checked his rank online when he went home and it turned out that he was #40 overall and got the 3rd place for his age category.

On the contrary, there were regrets that they did not prepare the digital camera  and they leave early after the race. How he wish that he attended the awarding ceremony and get his 1st trophy.

And how I wish I could post his picture here.

1st A(H1N1) Community Outbreak Declared In Nueva Ecija

Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque had declared in Sunday the first Community Level Outbreak in Hilera, Nueva Ecija after 11 cases were positive of A(H1N1) wherein 10 are students of Hilera Elementary School and another 4 year old girl. National Epidemiology Center confirmed the report.

Contact tracing of the 11 positive cases turned out that 92 contacts are showing symptoms of A(H1N1) virus. Local Health officers are monitoring 57 other students who also exhibited symptoms of the A(H1N1).

Class suspension is set for another 10 days. Since its the first community level outbreak, it would be better if everyone in the community should wear face masks.

Actually, I’m getting paranoid already of this influenza outbreak. As of this writing, the number of 111 had climbed again to 147 positive A(H1N1) cases in the Philippines.

A(H1N1) Vaccine? 111 A(H1N1) Cases?

Bad news: Last night, I checked on the latest count of A(H1N1) cases in the Philipines, it was “only” 92 when I blogged about the H1N1 Pandemic Alert 6. Additional 18 cases were added again, we already have a total of 111 confirmed A(H1N1) cases in the country.

I’m still waiting for DOH’s press release for preventive measures now that the alert level had increased to alert 6. 111 is alarming, its odd that yesterday we celebrated the 111th Independence Day.

Good news: Drug manufacturer Novartis had already developed vaccine for A(H1N1) virus. Reportedly, there are 30 countries already ordered for vaccine including Novartis proprietary adjuvant MF59®. The first batch will be use for clinical trials in July and hopefully obtain the vaccine license by Fall 2009. You could read the complete media release of Novartis here.

I heard about this after I posted my previous post and logout. Better blog it now so I can post the latest count.

A(H1N1) Global Pandemic Alert 6

Its alarming that World Health Organization (WHO) had increased the A(H1N1) alert level to 6, the world faces the 2009 influenza pandemic for infecting 74 countries with almost 30,000 reported A(H1N1) cases and 145 deaths.

Philippines currently have 92 reported A(H1N1) cases in a period of 20 days. Our first confirmed patient was in May 20, a 10-year old girl that arrived from US and Canada with her parents in June 18. She passed by thermal scanners with negative result. For the record, from May 20, from a single patient, the number had ballooned to current number of 92 current A(H1N1) infected patients. That was only 20 days and that made the Philippines the most number of A(H1N1) cases in Southeast Asia.

According to DOH (Department of Health) Secretary Francisco Duque, the virus we have in the Philippines is mild, just like an ordinary flu or influenza. Ok, no death as of this time, lets just hope that it stays that way.

As of this time, there are still no available vaccines to prevent the virus from spreading. The vaccine manufacturers are dong their best to formulate a safe and effective vaccine, all we can do now is be responsible for ourselves, avoiding crowded places like shopping malls. I’m hoping that the outbreak will come to its end.

I read somewhere that A(H1N1) testing kit costs Php 4,000, please let me know if its true. If it is, paano na ang nahawaan lang dito?

My Kids’ School Was Suspended For A(H1N1)

This post will serve as replacement to deleted post I posted yesterday regarding a school which already have 1 confirmed case of A(H1N1) and happens to be the school of my children.

I don’t see anything wrong with my post yesterday except a small part of it mentioned the school name (used it also on the post title). A screenshot of the post was saved on my computer.

Last weekend, CHED (Commission on Higher Education) announced the official class opening was moved to June 15 for colleges and universities. On the contrary, DepEd won’t follow CHED’s class suspension according to ABS CBN website (link is no longer available from their site).

It is clear that my purpose is not about the school per se but the idea that DepEd should as well follow CHED’s reschedule of class opening to June 15 especially for private schools. We have to admit that some private school students (elementary and high school) belong to “can afford” families that having their summer vacation abroad is normal. My concern are the students who will get infected of the virus by close contact to student who just came from travel abroad.

Panic? The moment I received the SMS, naturally I got worried of my children same as the many parents waiting outside of the school waiting for class suspension. According to DOH guidelines, If one school has confirmed positive case of novel influenza A(H1N1), the school principal can declare the suspension of classes. You can download the DOH Guideline for schools here for additional information.

I was lucky to contact the school after many times of getting a busy tone, that was around 11AM. I haven’t got the chance to know who I spoke with on the other line, I asked her if its true. Other parents said that the student was confirmed positive of A(H1N1). She said, its true but the student wasn’t able to go to school at all. So, there’s no reason to suspend class, right?

Odd? There are many hearsays, speculations about the issue. I know that it was a girl, a 3rd year high school student. I heard that the girl went to a mall with her classmates/friends recently. First day of school was Thursday (June 4) and suspended at 12nn because of the bad weather, no classes in Friday. At 6PM, the news spread like fire among students for class suspension and will resume in June 22. I called up the school again and its true.

What’s the real score? I received a comment yesterday from post yesterday (already deleted) which I read only now saying “The student already went to school last thursday, apparently the school doctor sent home 8 students who had a vacation abroad, including the girl who was later confirmed positive of the A H1N1 virus. Classes are now suspended and will resume on June 22“. Time commented was 11:30pm.

To avoid further speculations among parents and students, in behalf of the parents, I’m requesting a memo informing us (the parents and students) of the real incident. There are loopholes in the incident and we deserve to know what really happened.

Still, I don’t know if this case is already counted to already 46 confirmed A(H1N1) cases in the Philippines.