Was There Ever a Meningococcemia Epidemic in Baguio?
The answer is a resounding NO! I scanned the web for the names and numbers of those who actually died from the disease and found conflicting accounts from 4 to 8 to an exaggerated 25 persons but no names, nothing definite. Then there were reports from our local journalists adding to the scare by reporting large numbers of “suspected” cases. And all for what — so the local government in 2005 could get access to 12,000,000 pesos in calamity funds.
Folks, that was the whole point, don’t you see?
So in the meantime, tourism lost hundreds of millions, vegetable dealers were hard put to explain that their produce was safe, vendors made a killing selling surgical masks (as if the disease was highly contagious like SARS), instead of going on an information drive the small-minded folks here chose to panic instead.
Braulio Yaranon, our mayor then, who mishandled everything and even went on national television to say, “Huwag muna kayo umakyat ng Baguio” (Don’t come up to Baguio in the meantime) as if visitors would be in danger of contracting the disease, lost the elections recently. And I am glad he did. Because he was, like everybody else in office, stupid and greedy. Instead of controlling the hysteria, he and his people fueled the flames.
So many restaurants and other businesses closed down, relying on the influx of tourists to keep them in the black. We lost the very popular Salud Bistro because there were virtually no tourists in 2005. Even now, outsiders are afraid of catching meningococemia here as if the disease causes instant death (in truth, it takes prolonged contact with an infected person in close quarters to acquire it). Other countries that were hit by tsunamis jumped back faster than we did. And to think meningococcemia is containable and better yet, curable!
Yaranon’s mismanagement of Baguio caused us to lose a lot of business and customers through the two long years he was in office (on his last year, he was suspended for an unrelated cause). He wanted the bars closed at 12 midnight for all the wrong reasons, for every typhoon he would enjoin folks from visiting Baguio, he kept saying “no” to pay parking and casino issues that were already dead or dying (or which issues he could have delegated to better legal minds), had no real solutions to the city’s problems. He devoted his time fighting Jadewell, which I believe he suspected of being the milking cow of his opponents Vergara and Domogan.
It seems that Baguio’s residents are prone to self-destruction. A lot foolishly blame ita “uglification” on tourists. I blame it on their tasteless buildings, their selfish concerns, their abuse of the environment, on their insistence on being a “university town” when what Baguio is, really, is a “diploma mill city.” For a town that “educates” about 30,000 nursing students, they could have used those numbers for an information drive. I am exasperated by the small minds and the speculators here, including the local media, that publish rumor masquerading as truth.
So here it is folks, Meningoccocemia was merely a “media epidemic.” The real epidemic was that of the irresponsible tongues of those who live here. Instead of discovering the truth about it, they chose to engage in speculation and panic instead.
About 9 persons died in Baguio (some of them relatives, too) whereas 10 persons died in San Lazaro Hospital in Manila in 2004. Why was there no panic in Manila? Because menigococcemia is not that scary really, because Manila did not behave as stupidly as we did. For every death in Manila did headlines scream shrilly “Another person dies of Meningococcemia!”?
How I wish I were blogging then. I did write all about Meningococcemia at Go Baguio!, valiantly hoping to do some damage control and attract visitors still. And this is why I blog now, so folks can know, in real time, about what’s happening here.
For your reference, here are some relevant articles on the topic:
WHO to help the Philippines investigate disease outbreak
Meningococcemia–Why we self destruct
Baguio outbreak contained, Health chief
oh no…salud bistro closed? that’s really sad. they had great food over there. a little bit out of the way, but that’s a small price to pay for good food.
i remember session road looking like a wasteland during the meningococcemia scare. it really didn’t help that the local government was feeding (on) the panic to get a little dough.
OMG i sooo agree! they just made a big issue out of it, it was so overrated. there was even one time I was in my uniform (nursing) and was standing in line at the jeepney station when people started covering their nose. AS IF! then somebody yelled “Meningo galore” hinabol ko talaga yung babae and asked her “Gusto mo lecturan kita tungkol sa Meningococcemia?!” she was shocked of course.
Hi Kubi and Lei,
Yup, sometimes the folks here can be tiresome in their ignorance. If only Session Road would be a wasteland everyday — game! Para the pickpockets would leave Baguio.
That Meninggo scare made me really panic. Specially when I didn’t know what was really going on. I feared for the people I have left behind in Baguio. It also cost us $200 extra to go to Baguio because we took the shots before going.
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Lisa: I tagged you. Check my blog about 7 songs. Let me know what you are listening to
During the time of the ABS-CBN… oops… meningo “outbreak”, there were significantly more confirmed cases of the disease in Quezon City and Manila.
Thank you very much Channel 2.
Hi Tina ,
Yup made lots of folks panic. Visitors are still concerned about it even now. It was even used by a pharma company trying to sell the meningo meds in their print ads.
Hello Gomi,
You should see the news or features they have about places like Dagupan in the early evening — like tricycle collisions are important. Just so they have something to say. I would even get calls from them about featuring Baguio as a haunted city. Like I would agree to help them.
I agree with most of the above, save for one: that Baguio is a diploma mill city. That’s quite a brash, and really unfair, generalization… though it is true that Baguio is host to some questionable educational institutions, the others have produced two bar topnotchers, a few internationally acclaimed science students, a senator, world-class artists, well respected writers, lawyers, etc.
And though I agree too that we Bagiuo residents are partly responsible for the city’s “uglification” (thank oyu Jack Cariño for popularizing the word), I also think that the city’s past and present trapos, who believe that the overwhelming presence of concrete is the only gauge for a city’s progress, who sold Baguio to the highest bidders and bombarded us with flyovers (both completed and unfinished) and shopping malls are the ones to blame. These they did with lightning speed, things developed so fast and the citizens just didn’t get to react as fast. We made our voices heard in the 2004 elections but as you said, the people’s choice got so obsessed with his fight against a pay parking firm that he forgot about the rest of the city.
I can only hope that the people’s choice in the recent elections will prove to be the right one. All’s not lost.
Hi KMA, and thanks for dropping by.
It seems the “diploma mill city” has struck a raw nerve. I was sent a forwarded email from a Baguio Yahoo Group with an ex-Baguio resident living in Texas for the past years saying I did not know what I was talking about. And I have a post in the wings I have been editing for the past two months explaining why I believe this is so. But I did not want to release it during election time.
But really, when schools do not require entrance exams and allow students to enroll or transfer mid-semester, when they do not provide gardens and trees for the students minds to breathe, when they show no concern for maximum weight load capacities for their buildings by increasing their enrollment indiscriminately (not everything is about student to classroom ratio), when they do not broaden the students’ horizons by giving them a wide array of extra-curricular options and student lounges, when they ask the professors to lower their standards or expectations from the students, I call those diploma mills. I feel, for the tuition they charge, they should look into expanding their area or moving out from the middle of town, and giving the kids more for their parents’ money.
Every town or city has produced notable folk — I do congratulate UC for producing 2 bar topnotchers. Now if only a bigger percentage of graduates would pass the bar… but I believe they’re getting there. Entrance exams, maybe? To weed out those who cannot write well in English?
I do not mean to offend I just worry about all the kids whose parents work so hard to give them a college degree.
And I do welcome contrary views as they help make this city a better place.
Thanks for your comment!