Manila: The Philippines’ top health and military officials
were under fire on Tuesday for visiting Filipino UN troops undergoing
quarantine after serving in Ebola-ravaged Liberia.
More than 100 soldiers and police were confined for 21 days
on an island at the mouth of Manila Bay last week, part of measures meant to
ensure the Asian country remained free from the deadly Ebola virus.
However, armed forces chief General Gregorio Catapang and
acting health secretary Janette Garin then apparently violated the government’s
own protocols with a visit to the island over the weekend, said Philippine
College of Physicians president Anthony Leachon.
“It was a breach of protocol — quarantine is an enforced
isolation during the 21-day incubation period” of the virus, Leachon, who leads
the country’s 9,000-plus internal medicine specialists, told AFP.
“It might send the wrong signal,” Leachon said.
Politicians and netizens also criticised the two officials
for the visit, in which neither wore protective gear. The general was shown on
television engaging in elbow bumps with the quarantined peacekeepers.
“Overflowing supply of stupidity in the government,” tweeted
user @leonjalmasco.
“What dorks. Put them on quarantine,” wrote another Twitter
user called @violettiramisu.
President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman Herminio Coloma on
Tuesday said the visit did not violate any World Health Organisation protocols.
Neither Garin nor the health department spokesman responded
to requests for comment.
“We visited them to check on their condition as well as to
boost their morale ... It is important to make the point that people should not
be leery of them,” Garin told local news agency GMA in an earlier interview.
She said protective clothing was unnecessary since the
peacekeepers were not showing symptoms of the virus.
General Catapang said he visited the island at Garin’s
invitation “to show the armed forces that the soldiers are safe as of now, and
also (assure) the entire country that there is nothing to worry about”.
“We did not break any health protocol,” he told reporters,
adding that the quarantine will continue.
The nearly year-old epidemic has killed more than 5,000
people and infected about 14,500, mostly in West Africa.
More than 10 million Filipinos work abroad, putting the
country under potential threat.
As part of its protective measures, anyone coming from Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone — the countries worst affected with the epidemic — must
undergo quarantine.
Source: www.gulfnews.com
