SBMA has A(H1N1) quarantine facility

THE Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) established a quarantine facility for the use of employees, residents and visitors who might have been exposed to A (H1N1).

Pointing out that the Subic Bay Freeport Zone is another port of entry for foreigners and tourists alike, SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said the Subic authority has to be ready for any contingency now that the A-H1N1 is spreading worldwide.

“As one of the major tourism and investment destinations in the country, it is not impossible that an unsuspecting visitor may arrive in Subic by air, land or sea, before knowing that he or she has been infected by the virus,” Arreza said.

According to Dr. Solomon Jacalne, manager of the SBMA Public Health and Safety Department (PHSD), the Subic quarantine facility would be used primarily to separate members of the SBMA medical staff who were exposed to patients believed to have been infected by swine flu.

Jacalne, however, stressed that once any Subic visitor, worker or resident is found to be infected by A-H1N1, he would have to be transferred to the Jose B. Lingad Medical Hospital in Pampanga, the only hospital in the region identified by the Department of Health (DOH) as capable of handling A-H1N1 cases. (With Mia Gonzalez & Henry Empeño) Written by Rene Acosta business Mirror Reporter