MANILA, Philippines – Four more Filipinos,

including a one-year-old girl, were found infected with Influenza A(H1N1), bringing to six the total number of confirmed cases in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) announced yesterday.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said two of the four new cases – a 26-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man – contracted the virus from the Taiwanese mother and her five-year-old daughter who attended a wedding in Zambales last May 17.

Duque, however, stressed the new development is no cause for alarm.

“There is no need to panic. This is something that we have been preparing for,” Duque told a news conference.

He said the one-year-old girl arrived from the United States last May 19 and began exhibiting flu symptoms on May 24.

Duque said the girl is suffering from persistent cough but her fever had subsided.

The other confirmed case is a 13-year-old boy who arrived from Hong Kong on May 23. Duque said the patient manifested flu symptoms when he arrived but has since recovered.

The two contacts of the Taiwanese, on the other hand, exhibited symptoms on May 21.

Both of them are still suffering from cough and fever, Duque said.

Health officials, on the other hand, could not trace the origin of the virus that came from the two Taiwanese.

Officials pointed to the possibility that the two Taiwanese may have already contracted the disease when they left Taipei on May 15 and returned home five days later. The incubation period for A(H1N1) is 10 days.

Duque said the throat swab samples taken from the four patients all tested positive for the virus by the DOH’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

“Efforts are being taken to complete contact tracing and to place under quarantine those with known exposure to confirmed cases,” he said.

Duque warned the DOH is expecting more confirmed cases in the coming weeks because of what he called “intensive contact tracing” and heightened public awareness of the virus.

Duque also pointed out the increasing risk of virus contamination from continuous international travel and the increasing number of cases in other countries in the region.

He said the DOH is already preparing for the “worst case scenario.”

“DOH, however, assures the public that the pandemic preparedness and response plan is in place and that it has expanded its referral hospitals to all DOH regional hospitals and medical centers,” he said.

DOH chief epidemiologist Dr. Eric Tayag said there is still no reported case of local level A(H1N1) transmission in the country despite the spread of the virus from the Taiwanese nationals.

Tayag maintained the Taiwanese contacts fall under the category of “second generation transmission” because they got the virus outside the country.

In case they spread the infection to others, their contacts would constitute the “third generation transmission,” he said.

Tayag explained a community level transmission of the virus could occur only from third generation transmission.

The DOH had earlier tracked down and examined three contacts but they were negative for the virus. The results of the laboratory tests for six other cases are still pending.

Tayag assured the public that DOH has already traced the people who had contact with the four new cases.

“We are able to get all of the possible contacts at this time,” he said.

The DOH is currently tracking down more than 50 persons who attended the gathering in Zambales last May 17. The guests came from various parts of Central Luzon and Metro Manila.

Health officials in Central Luzon led by Dr. Rio Magpantay revealed yesterday that they are monitoring eight people who have manifested flu-like symptoms.

Magpantay said the eight were among those who attended the wedding party in Zambales.

On the other hand, DOH Undersecretary Mario Villaverde said they are verifying reports that a seven-year-old Filipino-Japanese boy and his four-year-old sister tested positive for A(H1N1) after arriving in Japan from the Philippines last May 22.

Villaverde said the DOH was already coordinating with Japanese authorities to validate the report.

“We’re looking into this. We still don’t know if he is based in the Philippines or if he just visited here, or how long he stayed here,” he added.

Local health authorities have also reported suspected cases of the flu in different parts of the country.

In Pangasinan, Dagupan City health officer Leonard Carbonell said a Filipino woman was confined after exhibiting flu-like symptoms two days after arriving from Canada.

Carbonell said he ordered further examination of the patient to the RITM in Manila.

In Davao City, three patients initially suspected of contracting A(H1N1) flu were discharged from hospital.

Davao Medical Center (DMC) administrator Leopoldo Vega said the patients developed fever and other flu-like symptoms that forced them to be quarantined for further examination.

De Vega said one of the patients was a 27-year-old male who arrived from Macau, China while the other was a 41-year-old male who came from Indiana in the US.

The third case was a 19-year-old porter who had cough and fever after close contact with a group of visiting Japanese seamen. – With Ding Cervantes, Eva Visperas, Edith Regalado - By Sheila Crisostomo (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)