RP ranks 9th in TB cases worldwide
The Philippines ranks 9th in cases of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and 3rd in the Asia Pacific Region.
This Department of Health statistic was revealed by Dr. Bernard Caspe during the launching of Social Mobilization on TB (SMT) Project and commemoration of the World TB Day by the World Vision Friday last week at the Iloilo Grand Hotel.
Caspe added that eleven years after a cure was found effective, TB is still prevalent. In fact, it ranks as the 5th cause of morbidity and 6th cause of mortality in the country, with 75 Filipinos dying daily because of the said illness. There are 1.7-million people worldwide who die every year because of TB.
He said that one factor for TB's prevalence is the stigma placed on the sufferers. "A person knows that he has TB for a long time but refuses to seek treatment for fear of being discriminated upon. However, one should realize that one sputum-positive person can infect 15 to 20 people in one year," Caspe said.
He added that malnutrition and poverty make TB worse. If a person is unhealthy, he or she is susceptible to the disease. In impoverished areas like the slums, people live close to each to other, making the airborne disease easy to spread. Added to this is the financial inability of the sufferer to buy his medicine. However, money is no longer a problem because the DOH is giving out free medicines already. He added that with the DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy Short-Course), there is hope for the sufferer.
Caspe is concerned that once a sufferer stops his medication, there is a tendency for the disease to be medicine resistant, making the case worse. "A TB patient should be dedicated in his medication."
He hopes that the social mobilization effort of the World Vision will help in minimizing the prevalence of TB.
Meanwhile, World Vision made a commitment to fight TB in the community by establishing effective mechanisms and support systems that will help improve the health of the community. "We believe that a healthy citizenry is a building block of an economically progressive and productive community," its statement goes.
True enough, based from statistics presented by Dr. Malbar Ferrer, chairman of the Citizens' (Iloilo) Coalition Against TB (CICAT) yesterday, there are P27-billion foregone wages annually due to TB. TB robs workers of P216 a day for men and P451 for women.
However, Ferrer believes there is still hope. "In 2005, we targeted that 70 percent of the cases be detected and 85 percent of this should be cured. According to the DOH, we exceeded this at 87 percent, with Iloilo City doing really well," he said.
The DOH targets that by the year 2010, the global burden of TB will be reduced by 50 percent. If the target is reached, there will be 20 million deaths averted and 50 million cases prevented.
The symptoms of TB are cough, fever and chest pains lasting for three weeks or more and coughing out blood. Its risk factors include HIV, smoking, diabetes, renal insufficiency, malignant lung or other tumors, post gastrectomy, alcoholism, massive weight loss and steroid/immunosuppressive therapy.