Amidst the "virus scare" hounding nations due to  the emergence of the 2019 new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that had killed 17 people and made  more than 500 others sick, Department of Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo admittted there is no antibiotics  for coronavirus or even an antiviral drug for regular flu or for adenoviral influenza, said  DOH Usec. Eric Domingo.
   The  existing medicines do not work for  coronavirus, Domingo also said.
    "No medicine for coronavirus except for the so-called  supportive treatment, the medicines for fever and hydration. We make sure the patient is nourished and naturally, you can clear the virus from your system," Domingo  said.
  But still, there is no identified reagent and antibiotics for coronavirus.

Since there is no medicine to address the novel virus, Domingo underscored the need for the public to boost one’s immune system.

He said one should avoid microbes entering his body. He said this can be done if one would strengthen his immune system aside from maintaining proper hygiene tough handwashing- using soap and water.

“We have been frequently touching and scratching so avoid going to areas where there are many people wearing masks especially during this flu season. This will prevent one from getting infected,” asserted Domingo.

Domingo also said that the Philippines has no capability to detect 2019 n-CoV since it is a novel strain of coronavirus, which was just identified.

“There should be a test kit to be developed for each virus, the test kit like primer and reagents are not yet availble in the Philippines,” he said.

“They are only availble in China and some referral centers of e World Health Organization (WHO) like that one in Japan and Australia,” Domingo also said.

“If we have this (new virus), we are asking the WHO help us have this reagents and primer, and we can do here the tests. But now, these tests kits are atill being developed,” he said.
In order to deal with a possible increase in the country of suspected cases of the new virus, Domingo said they are asking the WHO to get this primer and reagents.

“Paano nga kung dumami ang suspected case. At present, what we can do is the screening,” Domingo also said.

The DOH official cited the case of a five-year old Chinese boy whose throat samples wére sent to Australia after his laboratory tests from the Research Institute for Tropicl Medicine (RITM) yielded negative results for SARs-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-CoV).

“He is a person under investigation (PUI) or suspected,” he said.

He said that the tests in Australia will determine if he was afflicted with the virus that originated from Wuhan, China.

He also reminded the public not to panic because it is not necessarily coronavirus in case one has cough, fever or feel sick, if there is no history of travel to Wuhan, no exposure to a patient who fell ill of coronavirus and no association except those from the community or family, or no possibility he one had been exposed to that pathogen.

“Other than that, we have the same signs and symptoms, but we have tests for all bacteria– blood test and swabs,” he said.

He also said that one can be tested for all the common respiratory viruses and bacteria.
“If one is negative in all tests and he’s indeed sick, and the virus was not really identified, so we have the suspect. But , we need negative results of all the tests before we have the suspicions that it’s the new coronavirus since we cannot identify it with the present tests,” he said.
He pointed out there is only one origin of the new virus which is Wuhan.
“So, dont be afraid. It’s probably a regular flu because this is a season of flu,” he said.
He told anybody who travelled to China in the last three weeks and had fever to isolate one’s self, use mask so us not to spread the virus and go to a DOH hospital to be screened properly. He said this should be identified to be properly managed.
Meanwhile, Domingo assured they will conduct a close monitoring on the condition of the family who arrived from Hong kong to guarantee they won’t be sick during their stay in the Philippines.
He said they were able to check their records from the Bureau of Quarantine on the flight that arrived and nobody was sick and nobody had fever.
“So they were able to pass our health inspection although we are going to trace the family to determine if they will not become sick while in the Philippines,” he said.
He said they added sensors especially in our airports which have direct flights to Wuhan like Kalibo (Aklan) and Cebu.
“So they will not be able to pass if they have fever,” he said./STACY ANG