Second case of swine flu in the Philippines confirmed

Don’t look now, but after the news on the first swine flu case being contained, the second case of swine flu in the country was confirmed by the Department of Health on Sunday.

The second swine flu case is a 50-year Filipino woman who travelled alone from the US and arrived in the Philippines last May 20. DOH Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said the woman experienced some symptoms a day after she arrived. She went to for a check-up in a private clinic and was referred to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) where she was tested for Influenza A (H1N1) virus.

The patient, whose identity was withheld just like the first case, is now already isolated and s being monitored at Manila’s Research Institute of Tropical Medicine, and reports say that she also recovering and doctors are scheduled to run a second test on her. Officials are now tracing those who came into contact with her.

Still, in spite of the second swine flu case, Duque assured there remains no community-level outbreak in the country, and that authorities would not postpone the start of the school year, which is scheduled on June 1.