Palace to make sure Ebola does not spread in PH

By: Bong Lozada - 10 years ago

A hazmat worker moves a barrel while finishing up cleaning outside an apartment building of a hospital worker in Dallas. The Texas health care worker, who was in full protective gear when they provided hospital care for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who later died, has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Keeping up with the world’s fight against the Ebola virus, Malacañang on Saturday said that it would do what it takes to ensure that the Philippines would remain free from the deadly disease.

In an interview with government-run radio station, dzRB Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, said that the government was ready for the possibility that a person or persons entering the country could be carrying the virus.
“The government has strengthened and has better implemented the effective defensive measures against Ebola,” Coloma said. “We need to undertake such measures to make sure that we would not be affected or the deadly virus would not spread here in the country.”

The Department of Health on Wednesday has prepared P500 million in its fight against the disease.

Coloma said in a Senate budget hearing that the budget would be taken from the quick response fund of the DOH.

Coloma said Filipinos who would come from countries with reported Ebola cases were required to follow the right procedures of screening and quarantine.

“If ever they are found to have symptoms of Ebola, the flu-like symptoms, they would be immediately be put in isolation and put into the proper facilities to keep the rest of our citizens from further harm,” he said.

The government will take its cue from its handling of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS).