“I WANT absolute transparency in dealing with this problem. I asked that I be given the names and addresses of the students so that our medical team can extend them full assistance while at the same time ensuring measures to contain the spread of their illness, whether or not it turns out to be Influenza A(H1N1).”
Decisive is Mabalacat Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales in handling the crisis situation that is the high probability of the dreaded A (H1N1) already hitting his town.
Boking immediately mobilized his local health teams to monitor at least 33 students of the Don Bosco Academy and their families after the students simultaneously manifested apparent symptoms of A(H1N1).
Thirty of the students failed to report to class on Monday as they reportedly suffered from flu-like symptoms. Three came to class but were found to have fever and sent home after undertaking swab tests.
Boking has also met with Don Bosco officials the school’s Parents-Teachers Association to discuss the problem. It was in that meeting that he learned that a parent had called up the school to reveal that her flu-afflicted son has a brother who was one of the De la Salle University students who were earlier confirmed to have A (H1N1).
Don Bosco has since suspended classes until July 6 “after a period of surveillance and unavoidable circumstances” even if no A (H1N1) case had yet been confirmed at the school.
Morales said that results of tests on the swab samples taken from some of the students were not expected until Friday.
As transparency has served as a hallmark of the Morales administration, so it shall serve the public in good stead too in this A (H1N1) crisis. So Boking firmly believes.
In contradiction to the secrecy with which the Department of Health would like to envelope the crisis. The DOH has been elusive in giving out details on suspected and confirmed A(H1N1) cases purportedly to shield the victims from ostracism.
Counters Boking: “I think it’s more positive to be transparent about the cases. Otherwise, panic could be more widespread than necessary. Also, we cannot expect the maximum cooperation of the public in dealing with cases if they are kept ignorant of facts.”
Forewarned, as it is clichéd, is forearmed.
Misplaced indeed is the DOH’s fear of ostracism of the victims. The cases of A (H1N1) are ballooning. Where they happen, when they happen are all out for the public to know, the media and the DOH itself are vigilant there. To whom they happen, that is becoming community knowledge already. Witness the case of Hilera in Jaen, Nueva Ecija.
Sooner than later, A (H1N1) will have not only a face. It will have faces, hundreds of different faces, young and old, rich and poor, men, women and in-between.
No scarlet letter to abhor, to abominate, to damn is A (H1N1), notwithstanding its sharing of that initial in Hawthorne’s classic, and that other dreaded A too – AIDS.
The DOH itself has said that previous cases of A (H1N1) have already fully recovered. In Central Luzon, it’s 53 out of the 55 reported cases. And the remaining two are on the road to recovery, the regional health director said so himself.
Okay, one fatality has been recorded. But that, the DOH stressed, was caused by some other complications.
So, what is there to ostracize of the A (H1N1) victims?
Take it from Boking, transparency is the best antidote to fear.
Decisive is Mabalacat Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales in handling the crisis situation that is the high probability of the dreaded A (H1N1) already hitting his town.
Boking immediately mobilized his local health teams to monitor at least 33 students of the Don Bosco Academy and their families after the students simultaneously manifested apparent symptoms of A(H1N1).
Thirty of the students failed to report to class on Monday as they reportedly suffered from flu-like symptoms. Three came to class but were found to have fever and sent home after undertaking swab tests.
Boking has also met with Don Bosco officials the school’s Parents-Teachers Association to discuss the problem. It was in that meeting that he learned that a parent had called up the school to reveal that her flu-afflicted son has a brother who was one of the De la Salle University students who were earlier confirmed to have A (H1N1).
Don Bosco has since suspended classes until July 6 “after a period of surveillance and unavoidable circumstances” even if no A (H1N1) case had yet been confirmed at the school.
Morales said that results of tests on the swab samples taken from some of the students were not expected until Friday.
As transparency has served as a hallmark of the Morales administration, so it shall serve the public in good stead too in this A (H1N1) crisis. So Boking firmly believes.
In contradiction to the secrecy with which the Department of Health would like to envelope the crisis. The DOH has been elusive in giving out details on suspected and confirmed A(H1N1) cases purportedly to shield the victims from ostracism.
Counters Boking: “I think it’s more positive to be transparent about the cases. Otherwise, panic could be more widespread than necessary. Also, we cannot expect the maximum cooperation of the public in dealing with cases if they are kept ignorant of facts.”
Forewarned, as it is clichéd, is forearmed.
Misplaced indeed is the DOH’s fear of ostracism of the victims. The cases of A (H1N1) are ballooning. Where they happen, when they happen are all out for the public to know, the media and the DOH itself are vigilant there. To whom they happen, that is becoming community knowledge already. Witness the case of Hilera in Jaen, Nueva Ecija.
Sooner than later, A (H1N1) will have not only a face. It will have faces, hundreds of different faces, young and old, rich and poor, men, women and in-between.
No scarlet letter to abhor, to abominate, to damn is A (H1N1), notwithstanding its sharing of that initial in Hawthorne’s classic, and that other dreaded A too – AIDS.
The DOH itself has said that previous cases of A (H1N1) have already fully recovered. In Central Luzon, it’s 53 out of the 55 reported cases. And the remaining two are on the road to recovery, the regional health director said so himself.
Okay, one fatality has been recorded. But that, the DOH stressed, was caused by some other complications.
So, what is there to ostracize of the A (H1N1) victims?
Take it from Boking, transparency is the best antidote to fear.
