31 Candaba students probed for A(H1N1)

By Albert B. Lacanlale
CANDABA, Pampanga --- Thirty-one elementary students in this town are now being closely monitored by the Department of Health (DOH) after exhibiting influenza-like illnesses.
Health officials, led by Center for Health Development (CHD)-3 director Rio Magpantay, traveled to the Tagulud National High School in Barangay Tagulud here to investigate on the reported cases amidst the continuous increase of confirmed Influenza A(H1N1) cases in Central Luzon.
The CHD investigating team immediately departed for Tagulud to conduct interviews and possibly to take swab samples among the elementary students who have complained of either fever, colds, sore throat or cough, which are among the symptoms of the novel H1N1 disease.
Barangay Tagulud is one of the isolated villages of Candaba and is close to Jaen, Nueva Ecija where 23 confirmed cases of H1N1 have been found. It is 20 minutes away from the town proper.
Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo said the municipal government is set to release part of the town’s five-percent Calamity Fund for emergency preparedness, including the purchase of soap, alcohol and medicines.
Pelayo also led the conduct of a summit on A(H1N1), which was attended by school principals, health workers and barangay officials since cases of the disease have also been reported in Bulacan, a province at the southern border of Candaba.
In the whole region, 35 individuals have been diagnosed with A(H1N1) with two coming from Pampanga and 10 from Bulacan, Magpantay said.
The two victims from Pampanga have already recovered.
Magpantay said that though symptoms of A(H1N1) in the country were apparently mild compared to those that hit other countries the DOH is bracing for the possibility of the virus mutating into a more potent strain.
“Though there have been no deaths reported due to the A(H1N1), there is always the possibility that this virus would mutate into something more harmful to humans,” Magpantay said.