MANILA, Philippines—Churchmen announced the holding of religious processions and special Masses, students trooped back to schools with bottles of alcohol in their bags and guards in some colleges carried thermometers to check temperatures, as Filipinos joined hands in a battle against the swine flu virus.

As some 5 million youths poured back into public and private schools with the end of summer, student nurses in charge of taking temperatures in a Lucena City school made sure no one got in without an “OK” stamped on the wrist.

Soldiers in military camps joined in the fight by shunning handshakes and limiting their greetings to mere salutes.

Citing its vulnerability to transients, especially foreigners, the city government at the Makati financial district passed an ordinance setting aside P10 million for the purchase of surgical masks, hand sanitizers and other items to help fight the menace of the Influenza A(H1N1) virus.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said colleges and universities opened on Monday “without any problems” despite the steady increase in the number of confirmed swine flu cases in the country.

“The schools had ample time to prepare,” CHEd Executive Director Julito Vitriolo said.

In Naga City, processions and Masses will be held from Tuesday until Thursday to be led by Caceres Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi.

“This year’s processions and Masses [will be] held to ask for God’s mercy [so that] the community [will be] spared from the influenza pandemic and other illnesses,” Legaspi said.

Legaspi encouraged everyone to participate in the processions to venerate the image of the Divino Rostro (Holy Face of Jesus).

Lesson from history

The practice of holding processions in Naga when there are threats of epidemic is not new.

In 1882, a cholera epidemic struck Manila and threatened Ciudad de Nueva Caceres, now Naga City.

According to Church lore, the vicar general at the time, Fr. Pedro de la Torre, told people that in his native town in Spain, residents were spared from epidemics after paying homage to the Divino Rostro.

De la Torre is said to have then suggested to the local bishop to enshrine the image of the Divino Rostro for veneration. Prayers were continuously held by the clergy and the lay faithful until the threats of the epidemic passed.

Business as usual

Despite the swine flu scare, it seemed it was business as usual in some of the country’s major private universities.

The Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) campus in Quezon City teemed with cars, while the corridors at De La Salle University on Taft Avenue (DLSU Manila)—where 16 students had been stricken with the virus—crawled with people.

“I am surprised that in other schools there is still panic,” DLSU Manila president and chancellor, Br. Armin Luistro, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, describing the spread of the virus as a “wimpy pandemic.”

“They (the students) are so happy to come back. They have been bored at home and a lot of their activities have been postponed,” Luistro said, adding the school’s information campaign—“Be flu-less, not clueless”—had lessened the anxiety over the new flu strain.

Always vigilant

Luistro said the university had more cases of the normal flu among students than the 16 who caught the A(H1N1) virus and who comprised a minute percentage of the total DLSU population of about 13,000.

He said all the 16 students had recovered from the flu and none of them had spread the virus to any of their household members.

In a statement, Luistro said reports of a pandemic was a challenge to the authorities to inform the public that the pandemic alert referred to the “global reach and not the severity of the virus.”

“With the lack of proper information, the rest of the nation … can plunge into needless anxiety and senseless panic. Although we are aware that all of the A(H1N1) cases of the university and in the country have been mild … the university remains vigilant as ever,” Luistro said.

Jose Marie Magpayo, executive director of the DLSU marketing communications office, said the university had set up a hotline—5244611 local 710—for medical concerns.

Ateneo measures

AdMU has installed hand sanitizer dispensers all over the campus.

AdMU staffers also cleaned the high school with disinfectant to prepare for the resumption of classes next Monday. The high school suspended classes after three students tested positive for the virus last week.

The AdMU vice president for administration and planning, John Paul Vergara, said the university had focused its preparations on educating students about the illness.

AdMU also asked its 8,000 college students to inform the university when they registered online if they had gone abroad. Vergara said at least 400 students said they had traveled abroad but practiced self-quarantine.

Long lines at CEU

At Centro Escolar University, students queuing up for the opening of classes stretched from Mendiola to Legarda Street as school officials required each student to fill out a form indicating where he or she had traveled last week and their state of health.

This was apart from the digital ear thermometer used on each student to check body temperature.

At the University of the East campus, digital ear thermometers were used on students by security guards manning the gate, who wore surgical masks. Students registering a temperature higher than normal were prohibited from entering or were sent to the clinic.

When Sacred Heart College (SHC) in Lucena City opened its gate Monday, student nurses wearing face masks and equipped with thermometers greeted the returning students. Even the teachers and school workers were not spared from the health check.

Those who passed the test were stamped with an “OK” on their wrists, a nursing student said.

Most SHC students had bottles of hand sanitizers and alcohol in their school bags.

Proactive Makati

In Makati, Councilor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay said the P10-million fund would be used mainly to buy surgical masks, hand sanitizers and thermometers for health centers, hospitals, public schools and offices.

“We want to be proactive because there are a lot of people going in and out of the city. Our population balloons to four million during the day, while it goes down to 600,000 at night,” he said.

Makati has six confirmed cases of the virus—a mother and a son from San Miguel Village, a child from Barangay Cembo, and three students of Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) on Gil Puyat Avenue.

City health officer Ma. Lourdes Salud said the MIT students got the disease during a dance party attended by De La Salle students.

Also Monday, some 1,000 Makati government employees received free flu-vaccine shots as part of a month-long drive to strengthen their immunity against the common flu.

At military camps, soldiers have been told to limit greetings with fellow troopers to salutes. They have also been discouraged from shaking hands and making “beso-beso”.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Victor Ibrado also directed military hospitals to tidy up and stockpile medicines and other special supplies, such as facial masks, in case the virus invade camps.

So far, not a single case of the virus has been reported in the AFP. With reports from Edson C. Tandoc Jr., Allison W. Lopez, Jocelyn R. Uy in Manila, and Delfin T. Mallari Jr. and Jonas Cabiles Soltes, Inquirer Southern Luzon