Flu causes fear of bioterrorism - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 12, 2001 by Gill Donovan

PHILIPPINES: When reports spread of flu-like symptoms affecting hundreds of students in Catholic schools in Manila, some parents, fearing biological warfare, rushed to pick up their children.

Nearly a thousand elementary and high school students sought medical help from their clinics in two days. The students came from at least five different schools and were complaining of fever, cough and cold.

At Xavier School, a Jesuit-run school for boys in San Juan, east of Manila, nurse Lorrie Medina said parents inquired about the spreading disease, and some suspected biological warfare related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

She said that at least 100 students, an "unusually high" number, were sent home in two days. The school had yet to identify the cause of the illness, Medina added.

At nearby La Salle Greenhills, classes were suspended at midday as more students came down with the symptoms.

On Oct. 1, nurse Jess Mojeres said the school clinic treated 219 sick students, and 97 of them were sent home, a number she called "alarming."

De La Salle Br. Ricardo Laguda, school director, said parents panicked because news was exaggerated.

At an afternoon televised news conference, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit identified the virus affecting the students as influenza A of the H1N1 strain, often active during the rainy season from July through October.

Maria Concepcion Roces, manager of the health department's Field Epidemiology Training Program, said that misreporting of the incident caused hysteria among parents.