PNP denies meningococcemia outbreak in Camp Crame
Facility quarantined because of suspected case
By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 17:23:00 09/05/2008
Filed Under: Diseases, Health, Hospitals and Clinics, Police
MANILA, Philippine – The Philippine National Police (PNP) denied an outbreak of meningococcemia in its Quezon City headquarters after a patient was suspected to have died Thursday morning of the deadly viral disease.
During a weekly forum in Camp Crame, Senior Superintendent Renee Balagot, chief of the emergency room and project management office of the headquarters health service, said the PNP General Hospital has been declared free of contamination after undergoing sterilization and quarantine.
Balagot, a medical doctor, said that a civilian worker of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) was rushed to the PNP General Hospital at 4 a.m. Thursday after showing symptoms of the disease. She did not name of the victim.
Meningococcemia, caused by the Neisseria meningitidis virus, is a fatal and highly infectious disease that attacks the bloodstream. When afflicted, a patient can die within hours, Balagot said.
Among the symptoms shown by the CIDG worker were low platelet count and skin rashes.
Since the PNP General Hospital has no intensive care unit (ICU), the victim was transferred to the nearby Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC). He died at noon Thursday of still unidentified causes, Balagot said.
Because the case was suspected to be meningococcemia, Balagot said she immediately quarantined the emergency room of the PNP hospital and directed all personnel within the vicinity to take 500 mg of the antibiotic Ciproflaxin.
By 8 p.m. Thursday, the hospital was declared free of meningococcamia.
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