2009 flu pandemic in the Philippines

The 2009 flu pandemic in the Philippines is a part of larger global flu epidemic that involves new Influenza A virus strain, H1N1. The pandemic reached the Philippines on May 21, 2009 when a young Filipina girl first contracted the A(H1N1) virus while vacationing in Houston, Texas, US. In the following days, several local cases were reported to be caused by contact with two infected Taiwanese women who attended a wedding ceremony in Zambales.

The 10-year-old Filipina girl arrived at the country on May 18 and was hospitalized the day after at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City. On May 21, Department of Health (DOH) secretary Francisco Duque confirmed the case being the first Philippine swine flu case. On a May 22 press conference at World Health Organization Regional Office in Manila, Secretary Duque announced the first A(H1N1) case in the country:

The DOH confirms today the first case of A(H1N1) in the Philippines. She is a female traveler who arrived in the country on May 18 from the United States, whose throat specimen tested positive based on results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Since the outbreak of A(H1N1) in the Americas, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urged the Department of Health, the Bureau of Immigration, the Bureau of Quarantine and other concerned agencies to control monitor airport and seaport arrivals for possible flu infection. Thermal imaging equipment were installed at major airports to screen passengers coming from infected countries for flu symptoms. The Philippines may quarantine travelers arriving from Mexico with fever. Also, the importation of hogs from the U.S. and Mexico was manned, and the restriction of swine influenza vaccine use was retracted. First death was reported on June 19, 2009, a 49-year-old Filipina employee of the Congress, as well as the first death in Asia.

...
Wikipedia