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The Department of Health Friday expressed alarm over the
fast-spreading multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and
increased its budget for its tuberculosis control program by almost
three times.
From a mere P240 million, the department’s
budget for its 2008 TB Control Program was boosted to an
unprecedented P680 million.
“This huge amount of financial assistance for
TB control marks our giant leap in our fight against
tuberculosis,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said.
The Health department disclosed that the world
is currently facing the highest number of MDR-TB cases in history.
In the Western Pacific Region, the Philippines, next only to China,
registered the highest prevalence rate of MDR-TB cases at four
percent of all new smear positive MDR-TB patients.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
earlier warned on the swelling number of MDR-TB cases showed by
worldwide surveys conducted from at least 81 countries, thus urging
private donors and governments to “do more to strengthen the
quality of laboratories and ensure that countries are prepared to
diagnose multidrug-resistant TB.”
The WHO Western Pacific Regional Office in
Manila noted that one of the main reasons for the spread of the MDR-TB
disease is the insufficient number of basic laboratory facilities to
monitor and manage the disease in many countries.
The Health department said it aims to reach 117
MDR-TB patients as beneficiaries of complete TB treatment drugs
worth P150,000 per patient this year. Duque also said that the
department is expecting aid from the Global Fund for 2,500 MDR-TB
cases over the next five years that will enable the government start
rapid diagnosis, treatment and management of drug-resistant TB
cases.
Duque said the department is also set to
establish networks that will also strengthen the quality of services
at the country’s various Directly-Observed Treatment Short-course
centers for basic tuberculosis treatment in the private sector,
through the Philippine Coalition Against TB.
-- Rommel C. Lontayao
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