INTENSE VIRUS WATCH: Feverish Chinese child seeks hospital check-up

Photo by Ian Paul Cordero/PN
Photo by Ian Paul Cordero/PN

ILOILO City – A day after the Department of Health (DOH) announced that Western Visayas remained free from the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) spreading in China, a visiting Chinese couple had their three-year-old child with fever checked at the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district.

“We are closely coordinating with our referral hospital as to the child’s status,” said Dr. Jane Juanico, head of the Infectious Disease Section of DOH Region 6.

The family were guests of a hotel. DOH-6 did not say how long the family had been staying in the city and if they were Dinagyang Festival tourists.

The child is the first foreign traveller in the region to seek medical attention at the DOH-referral hospital since the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China, according to Juanico.

DOH-6 has issued a “code white” alert as part of measures to protect Western Visayas from the novel coronavirus that as of yesterday already killed 132 people in China and made ill nearly 6,000 others.

It also issued a “general advisory” that travellers with flu-like symptoms must seek immediate medical attention.

Juanico said Western Visayas Medical Center would be assessing the Chinese child’s condition and determine if the young Chinese visitor would be classified as a patient-under-investigation or PUI for the new coronavirus.

“If the child is eventually assessed as a PUI for the new coronavirus, the hospital’s isolation room would be used,” said Juanico.

The virus causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough. After a week, some people can experience shortness of breath and need hospital treatment.

On Tuesday, an expert at China’s National Health Commission said one week was sufficient for a recovery from mild coronavirus symptoms.

The new coronavirus is thought to have emerged from illegally traded wildlife at a seafood market in Wuhan City, China and can now spread between people.

DOH-6 announced on Tuesday that the three Boracay Island-bound Chinese nationals quarantined at the Dr. Rafael S. Tumbukon Memorial Hospital in Kalibo, Aklan tested negative for it, it announced.

Throat swab specimens were collected from the three foreigners then these were sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Manila for analysis.

“We received the results of their laboratory tests. All of them were negative for the virus,” said Dr. Jessie Glen Alosabe, epidemiologist of DOH-6.

The three have been released from the hospital.

The first to be quarantined was a 29-year-old Chinese national. This was on Jan. 17. The second was a three-year-old girl on Jan. 18.

The third was a 65-year-old Chinese, on Jan. 20./PN

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