In an interview with Punto, Ubial said a total of 39 persons who had helped cull the thousands of chickens and other fowls in San Luis had developed flu like symptoms at different times after the culling operations were finished four days ago.
“They were isolated at different times at the Jose B. Lingad Hospital (JBL) depending on when they developed flu symptoms. The last four who exhibited symptoms were found to be negative of avian flu and were allowed to go home (yesterday),” she said.
Fear of avian flu contamination heightened after an Australian laboratory confirmed that the avian flu strain in San Luis, as well as in Jaen and San Isidro, Nueva Ecija were of the kind that could be contracted by humans. Agriculture Sec. Manny Piñol, however, stressed that cases of such contamination were “very few.”
Ubial noted, however, that the DOH will continue to monitor the health of the hundreds of workers who worked in the culling of fowls in affected poultries in the two provinces.
“We can assume that all of them are safe only after 10 days since their last exposure to the fowls in the affected area,” she added.
