Philippines' Pacquiao must be quarantined - health chief

Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, who demolished IBO light-welterweight champion Ricky Hatton of Britain, has knocked down an order by Philippines health officials to delay his return home due to the new H1N1 flu.

Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque said Pacquiao should delay his trip home from Los Angeles in order to monitor if he would develop flu symptoms.

But Pacquiao said he would not be cowed by flu fears and would return to Manila today as planned.

"Maybe those who are quarantined are people who have been found to have colds, or a temperature or fever. But if you are healthy, then why should you be quarantined?," Pacquiao said in a radio interview yesterday as he was preparing to leave his Los Angeles home for the airport.

The H1N1 virus has killed 42 people in Mexico and has reached 24 countries, infecting over 2,000 people, according to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and national authorities. There has been evidence of the virus spreading in Los Angeles where Pacquiao had trained for weeks before his fight against Hatton last weekend.

There is no confirmed H1N1 flu case in the Philippines.

Duque said yesterday that Pacquia should consider undergoing self-quarantine upon returning home.

"If Manny is pushing through with his trip, we cannot do anything about it, we have advised them already," Duque said. "But our request is for them to go on a self-imposed quarantine."

Pacquiao was also set to parade around Manila today on an open-top vehicle shortly after his return to the country, as he usually does after a big fight.

But officials said yesterday his parade may be postponed to Monday partly due to fears of any unnecessary exposure to the virus and also because a typhoon was expected to hit the northern Philippines today.