FOR better tuberculosis (TB) services in the Philippines, the United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Stop TB Partnership donated a package of new tools that will also make primary care for the highly communicable disease accessible.
The P130-million ($2.6 million) package of tools is part of a global initiative: Introducing New Tools Project (iNTP).
“The government of the United States of America is one with the government of the Philippines in bringing TB care back on track,” said Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Heather Variava after she handed over the new tools to Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho, who is the health promotions director of the Department of Health (DOH) and Mayor Rex Gatchalian at an event in Valenzuela City on November 23.
The iNTP package includes eight ultra-portable chest X-ray machines, 38 portable rapid diagnostic machines, Video Observed Treatment that will benefit 19,000 TB patients, and short-course medicines for TB prevention of 30,000 adults and children.
“These tools will bring TB primary care closer and more accessible to people,” Variava added.
In a recorded message, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III underscored the way primary care providers have continued TB services amid the public-health crisis: “Despite the pandemic, we have started to increase the number of new and relapse TB cases notified to DOH, through the efforts of our frontline workers.”
Beginning April 2021 the said cases notified to DOH averaged 53,316 per quarter. The number rose to 74,448 average cases per three months in 2021.
The donation package will support TB services in Valenzuela City and the provinces of Tarlac, Bataan, Laguna, Cebu, and South Cotabato.
Meanwhile, Gatchalian received the donation on behalf of other local chief executives. He affirmed that, “With these new tools, our doctors, nurses, and medical technologists will have the chance to find more people with TB quickly, treat them effectively, and prevent infection in the timeliest manner.”
The Philippines was one of seven countries selected to receive the iNTP package, along with Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nigeria, Kenya, and Congo.
The World Health Organization’s 2021 Global TB Report lists the Philippines as one of 30 high TB-burden countries, with the highest TB incidence rate in Asia at 539 cases per 100,000 people.
Through USAID, the US and the Philippine governments work shoulder-to-shoulder to create a healthier, more resilient society for all Filipinos.