The regional office of the Department of Health (DoH) in Nueva Ecija has shifted to mitigation process which entails early detection and treatment of A (H1N1) cases following the declaration of state of calamity in the province owing to the community level transmission of the virus in the town of Jaen as the nationwide count for the virus escalated to 311.

Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III confirmed 64 new A (H1N1) cases Wednesday composed of 40 males and 64 females, 62 of them Filipinos and two foreigners, bringing the cases to 311.

Duque said all new A (H1N1) patients are presenting mild symptoms of flu. Over the last 24 hours, the DoH has discharged eight A (H1N1) patients after they have fully recovered from the disease.

Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already tallied a total of 35,928 Influenza A (H1N1) cases and 163 deaths from 76 reporting countries.

The state of calamity was declared by Jaen local government officials led by Mayor Santiago R. Austria and members of the Sangguniang Bayan the other day after the DoH announced a community-level transmission of Influenza A (H1N1) in Barangay Hilera where 20 people have tested positive for the novel virus and about 100 are under observation.

Under the state of calamity, Mayor Austria has been authorized to spend at least P600,000 for gadgets, medicines and measures to contain the spread of flu.

DoH officials earlier said that a community-level transmission of the virus is already present when the source of the disease can no longer be traced.

Duque said they are still investigating if the virus could be atrtributed to the medical mission team that came to Barangay Hilera last May. The team was composed of doctors and medical students who belonged to a school that had confirmed cases of the virus.

Dr. Rio Magpantay, Region 3 Center for Health Develpoment (CHD)-Regional Director, said they are now implementing active surveillance of cases in Barangay Hilera and its neighboring barangays, Barangay Bakul and Barangay Lambakin, since many of the students in Hilera Elementary school are residents of the two barangays.

The CHD official said a state of calamity owing to infectious diseases is the initiative of local governments although they can consult the DoH on their actions.

"We have teams that go around the barangays, they go from one house to another to find out if there are people who exhibit Influenza Like Illness (ILI). We immediately give treatment to those who are sick," Magpantay said.

Since May, CHD-region 3 has already monitored a total of 276 suspected cases of A (H1N1) where 20 have been confirmed with the virus.

The DoH earlier disclosed that 12 of these are students and eight are household contacts.

No one among the 19 patients have been hospitalized since they all presented mild influenza symptoms, Dr. Magpantay noted.

"Everybody recovered after treatment. We don't even need to isolate them. The sickness naturally resolves on its own because the virus has a self-limiting capacity," he said.

Meanwhile, DOH Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) Director Dr. Remigio Olveda said they have already placed orders for additional A (H1N1) testing kits as the demand for tests climbed after the surge of confirmed cases.

RITM in Alabang, Muntinlupa is the only health facility designated by the DoH to perform tests for A (H1N1).

Olveda said the DoH has given RITM ample budget to order the needed reagents from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.

Olveda said they usually receive their orders from CDC every week but not since the world saw a steady climb of confirmed A (H1N1) cases. RITM received the latest batch of reagents more than a week ago. However, Olveda stressed that RITM are still capable to test and process tests for the novel virus.

RITM receives more than 200 throat swab samples each day and are able to process about 200 to 300 samples on the same day.

The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) Wednesday began training health workers, including nurses and volunteers, that will be deployed to Nueva Ecija to help local government officials in managing the health emergency in the area.

PNRC Secretary General Gwen Pang said they trained 60 medical staff Wednesday and are training 60 more volunteer nurses and other medical workers. The PNRC medical team will be deployed in Nueva Ecija beginning Thursday.

PNRC has also began sending medicines to the town of Jaen like paracetamol, cough and colds medicine and vitamins.

"Since the treatment of A (H1N1) is symptomatic, we have sent paracetamol for fever, cough and colds and vitamins so the patients can fight against the symptoms. If more cases will be confirmed, we will send another batch of medicines but right now, the medicines that we have sent came from our warehouse," Pang said.

The PNRC official added that they are ready to set up tents should there be a need for isolation spaces for people who will be confirmed for the novel virus.