AUG.

26, 2013

NR # 3207

73 Filipinos die of tuberculosis every day

About 73 Filipinos die of tuberculosis every day while an estimated 600,00 citizens are carriers of the dreaded disease. Rep. Angelina Tan (4th District, Quezon) warned tuberculosis will spread in many parts of the country if there will be no national plan to address it. Tan filed House Bill 259, which mandates the DOH to develop and implement a national plan to eliminate tuberculosis and address the development and application of new technologies, tying up with international organizations concerned with tuberculosis control for possible funding and assistance. A national plan should focus on the prevention, detection, treatment and control of the disease, Tan said. TB disease is highly contagious as each person with active TB can spread the disease to 10 other Filipinos each year. There is an estimated 200,000 to 600,000 Filipinos who have active TB aside from the fact that an estimated 80 percent of them have latent TB, Tan stressed. According to Tan, the health authority should conduct nationwide monitoring and provide available medicine and free laboratory examination to suspected TB carriers. Tan said TB is an infection caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis that can be passed on to another person through tiny droplets spread by coughing and sneezing. TB is the number six leading cause of death in the country with 73 Filipinos dying everyday, she said. Despite the efforts of government to improve the early detection and treatment of TB, the countrys benchmark figure on the case detection rate, treatment success rate and cure rate are declining mainly because of various systemic and social factors, such as widespread poverty, Tan said. Citing the World Health Organization Global Tuberculosis of 2012 report, Tan said the Philippines is in rank number 9 out of 196 countries with high cases of tuberculosis. It is hoped that through this measure, the country will not only be able to achieve but surpass its objective under the Global Plan on TB which seeks to reduce the prevalence and mortality of TB in the country, Tan said. The bill mandates the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to encourage faculty of schools of medicine, nursing or osteopathic medicine to intensify their program for information and education programs, including the development of curricula, to significantly increase the opportunities for students and for practicing providers to learn the principles and practices of preventing, detecting, managing and controlling TB. Likewise, the bill also mandates the Department of Education (DepEd) to include in their curriculum some modules on the principles and practices of preventing, detecting, managing and controlling tuberculosis. (30) jc