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Mary Ann

Mary Ann Benitez

Test results are due today, but WHO says victim's illness can be anything

A Filipina domestic helper from Hong Kong was last night in isolation at a Manila hospital suffering from suspected Sars and severe pneumonia, Philippine health authorities said.

The woman's husband - suffering from a low-grade fever and cough - was  also in care yesterday at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Their three children and two attending doctors have been put in home isolation, while friends and neighbours who visited the woman - known only as M.D. - were being contacted and advised to take precautionary measures.

'She works in Hong Kong as a domestic helper. She is apparently home for the Christmas holidays,' Luningning Villa, a medical specialist at the Health Department's infectious disease office, told the South China Morning Post from Manila last night.

Sars test results are expected today.

When the 42-year-old arrived from Hong Kong to her remote hometown of Laguna - about three hours' drive  from Manila - on December 20, she apparently had no pneumonia symptoms. Four days later, she developed a fever and a cough and was given antibiotics by a doctor at the Laguna Provincial Hospital.

'She showed no improvement by December 29, at which time she began to experience difficulty breathing,' Philippine Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit  said.

She was admitted to the Laguna hospital's intensive care unit on January 1 and diagnosed through X-ray with atypical pneumonia, Dr Villa said.

The woman was taken to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine on Sunday  and was admitted to an isolation ward with severe pneumonia. Her condition is being closely monitored.

'If the patient came from Hong Kong, the tracing of the case should start with Hong Kong, including individuals she had been in contact with and particularly any sick [Sars] patient,' Dr Villa said.

The World Health Organisation's representative in the Philippines, Jean-Marc Olive, said: 'Up to now, it is still a suspected Sars case. We are not worried.  At this time of the year, it could be anything.

'Manila health authorities have taken all the necessary precautions to limit the possible secondary spread.'

The Philippines had seven imported Sars cases and seven local transmissions during last year's global outbreak. Two of the sufferers  died.



Filipina domestic worker from HK on disease watch in Manila