MENINGO SCARE. Work returns to normal at the emergency room of the Holy Child Hospital in Dumaguete City on Thursday (Jan. 23, 2020) after it was cordoned off on Wednesday afternoon when a suspected meningococcemia patient came in. No official word has yet been released as health authorities are still awaiting the results of laboratory tests for confirmation. (Contributed photo)
DUMAGUETE CITY – Health authorities here were looking into a possible meningococcemia case involving a five-year-old girl who was brought to a private hospital here on Wednesday afternoon.
As of Thursday morning, there was no official announcement on the case from the Department of Health (DOH) or from the two hospitals where the child was brought for treatment and confinement.
Blood samples were already obtained from the child for testing, according to Dr. Liland Estacion, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) chief.
Dr. Kenneth Coo, medical director of the Holy Child Hospital (HCH) where the patient was first examined at the Emergency Room, said in text messages on Wednesday evening that the case was “suspected meningococcemia” and that the patient was already isolated at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH), where she was transferred.
The girl, whose personal information is being withheld, had to be transferred because it had an isolation room built for special upper respiratory and infectious diseases like the SARS virus.
Dr. Coo further said that they are awaiting confirmatory tests as he explained that they had already disinfected the ER “just to be sure”.
Photos and posts on Facebook said the Holy Child Hospital was "locked down", but sources there said it was just the ER that was cordoned off for sanitizing.
As word broke out on social media regarding the suspect meningococcemia case, people were reported to be in frenzy, with some pharmacies running out of face masks, while other posts advised staying away from the hospitals.
To quell the “meningococcemia scare”, Governor Roel Degamo and Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo issued statements to the public, appealing for them to stay calm and be responsible with their online posts and forwarded messages.
A message from the governor through Bimbo Miraflor, the Capitol’s information officer, asked the public to “refrain from concocting stories” until the laboratory test results are out and the Department of Health releases an official statement.
“And so as not to put Dumaguete and the entire province in a bad light, we strongly advise the public to stop making stories, especially in social media platforms that would cause undue public panic”.
Remollo also appealed for sobriety while City Health Officer, Dr. Ma. Sarah Talla explained that “meningococcemia-bacterial infection (is) caused by the neisseria meningitidis, which may be spread by respiratory droplets and close contact.”
“An infected person may manifest with macupapular lesions later becoming vesicular. It can be spread through respiratory secretions and close contact in cough and sneeze manners,” Talla said.
She advised the public to make hand-washing a regular habit and to avoid crowded areas to minimize the risk of infection, she added.
The condition of the patient as of this writing was not yet known as health authorities are still mum about the case until official laboratory results are out. (PNA)
