BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)

Two male American missionaries with fever were admitted at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City yesterday for possible Influenza A(H1N1), Health Regional Director Ariel Valencia confirmed last night.

The missionaries aged 20 and 53 years old were admitted for observation, he said.

They arrived in the Philippines on June 9 and in Bacolod on June 10 and went into self-quarantine at their staff house, he said.

They developed fever on June 12, underwent consultation and were admitted yesterday, Valencia added.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, meanwhile, said, “This is a continuing watch and there is no cause for panic at all.”

The Bacolod City government might use some of its calamity fund for its continuing H1N1 education and information campaign monitoring, he added.

Meanwhile, more than 160,000 college students are expected to troop back to school in Western Visayas today.

Colleges and universities have been instructed to keep close watch for possible H1N1 cases and to report any such cases for immediate action, Dr. Isabela Mahler, CHED regional director for Western Visayan, said yesterday.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday declared a community-level outbreak of the Influenza A(H1N1) virus in Hilera village in Jaen, Nueva Ecija, as the 92 contacts of 11 children who tested positive for the virus there, exhibited flu symptoms.

On Sunday, the DoH also announced that the country had 147 confirmed cases of the A(H1N1) flu with no fatality.

Negros Occidental has, so far, only one confirmed H1N1 case, a 17-year-old student who acquired her fever at De La Salle University in Manila and returned to Bacolod City.

She was confined at the CLMMRH but was released Friday. The DOH said the people who came in contact with her were not infected.*CPG