Five government hospitals in the country, two of them in Metro Manila, will be ready for Zika virus testing starting next week.
Department of Health secretary Janette Garin said staff from Baguio General Hospital, Vicente Sotto Hospital, Southern Philippines Medical Center, Lung Center of the Philippines and San Lazaro Hospital are all set to undergo traning from the Reseach Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in testing patients suspected to carry the Zika virus.
RITM currenty has 1,000 testing kits for the Zika virus, and is expecting another thousand in the coming weeks. However, they will not yet be available commercially as they are being reserved for those showing symptoms of the disease.
Early detection of the Zika virus has been difficult. While fever, rashes and conjunctivitis have been cited as common symptoms, only 25 percent of infected patients are found to manifest them.
According to ABS-CBN News Online, the DOH secretary confirmed that the mosquito found to carry Zika virus is present in the Philippines, but she also clarified that they have not found an active local transmission of the virus in the country.
The Zika virus is now present in 29 counties, and has been linked to severe birth defects. It specifically causes microcephaly, a condition wherein the baby has a shrunken head and damaged brain.
