The Philippine Department of Health confirmed Friday two deaths
from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the
Philippines and two other people were infected with the virus.
"We have four cases of SARS, three imported and one locally
transmitted," Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said in a press
statement.
Dayrit said that Adela Catalon, who died at a hospital in Manila on
April 14 and is believed to have contracted SARS in Toronto,
Canada, and her farther, who died several days later, had been
infected with SARS.
He
added that a German man who traveled frequently to the Philippines
from China's Hong Kong and a Filipino domestic helper who returned
from Hong Kong on April 10 were also infected.
Government officials had earlier reported the case of the German
man but said he recovered without infecting anyone else. The
domestic helper is under quarantine at home after her local
hospital refused to admit her, Dayrit said.
Dayrit also said Catalon's father was the first local transmission
of SARS in the Philippines.
Autopsy findings released late Thursday showed that the elder
Catalon had cancer. "However, the lungs showed bronchopneumonia
which could have been the immediate cause of his death," Dayrit
said.
Catalon and her father previously were cited as having died of
probable SARS and the Philippine government placed under quarantine
Catalon's hometown and nearby villages in the northern province of
Pangasinan.
The government stepped up health checks at all entry points and
called for a combination of vigilance, cooperation and calm by the
public to try to keep SARS from its shores.
(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2003)