ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 05 Mar) – A Christian humanitarian organization is earmarking $4 million or roughly P200 million to fund a five-year project in curbing tuberculosis (TB) and other lung problems in at least 21 highly-infected cities and provinces in the Philippines.
The World Vision Development Foundation, Inc. with its international funding Geneva, Switzerland-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (GFATM) have team up with Department of Health, and other private medical organizations such as the Tropical Disease Foundation, Inc. and Philippine Coalition Against Tuberculosis, local government units, and the targeted community beneficiaries in a program dubbed as "Social Mobilization on Tuberculosis."
Social Mobilization is a process of bringing together all feasible and practical inter-sectoral allies to raise awareness of and demand for the TB prevention program, to basically assist in the delivery of resources and services and to strengthen community participation for sustainability and self-reliance," Marlon A. Villanueva, World Vision's project coordinator said during the launching of its program here last week.
"Through this tuberculosis eradication program, our objective here isto increase the demand for quality 'directly observed treatment, shortcourse' or DOTS services in the public and private DOTS centers by mobilizing communities or organizing TB task force and by empowering TB patients in underserved poor populations," he said.
The project will be divided into two, these are the "Round 2 Partners" which will focus on provinces of Zambales, Bataan, Sorsogon, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Tagbilaran, Bohol, Ormoc, Leyte, Cagayan de Oro, and Butaun, while the "Round 5 Partners" will include the cities of Caloocan, Parañaque, san Pablo, Bacolod, Cebu, Ilo-Ilo, Davao, General Santos, and Zamboanga City.
In Zamboanga City, the group identified the villages of Talon-Talon andRecodo, as pilot areas due to its high cases of TB, however, the program's coverage will expand to more than 10 villages in the following years.
Villanueva said the Round 2 which has started since October last year, will end in 2008, while the Round 5 will stretch up to 2011.
He said the bulk of the money will fund the series of trainings and seminars in strengthening community organizing for public health workers; for the creation and operational expense of the TB Task Force, and the conductions of effective health education for public health workers and the community-based TB support group members.
"We are not just directly eliminating tuberculosis in the lungs of the affected areas, but we are also empowering and enforcing the community itself to prevent the occurrence of the disease," he said.
He said the community-based TB task force will be the main centerpiece of the program, and serve as the forefront to reduce if not eliminate TB, which is among the country's top 10 killer diseases, based on the government's Health department.
In its briefing paper, the task force is a collective of individuals or groups from various sector of the society volunteering their services in: raising awareness on TB through health education and various advocacy activities, identifying and referring TB symptomatic for consultation, acting as treatment partners to infected patients and supervising the daily drug intake of the patients; and its welfare in general."
Villanueva explained, that "the task force will trained to increase access of the community to quality "directly observed treatment shortcourse' services and to provide patient-centered TB services."
For its part, the government's Health department, through its regional offices, will provide medical experts for the training of the task force, and shoulder "for free" all the anti-TB medicines and major consultations, according to health's regional director Aristides Tan.
He said for Zamboanga Peninsula the national government is setting aside roughly P1.5 million annually for anti-TB program. Tan noted they are receiving an alarming rate of more than 1,000 TB afflicted individuals per year in the region.
"Based on the World Health Organization, at least 75 Filipinos die everyday due to TB," he said, adding that country is number eight among 22 countries that have the highest tuberculosis burden in the world. In Asia, the Philippines is number two, after China.
He said the treatment process of tuberculosis ranges from six to eight months. "That's why it requires a proper monitoring for the affected individuals."
The DOTS normally require patients to take anti-TB drugs for a span of time, and to continue even when the TB symptoms disappear. Patients who stop in the middle of their treatment often develop resistance to anti-TB drugs, and continue to infect people since their ailment has not been cured, he said.
Tuberculosis is primarily a disease of the respiratory system and results in persistent cough, fever, fatigue and weight loss. Similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome, tuberculosis is spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes and propels TB germs into the air.
People sharing close quarters with TB victims in homes, schools, hospitals and prisons are at high risk to exposure.
Based on a survey done by the Department of Health in 1998, tuberculosis is also accounted for 8% of total deaths between the years 1993 to 1998, making it the sixth leading cause of death in the Philippines based on the same survey. Those most often afflicted are Filipinos in the productive ages of 15 to 54 years, he said.
Tan said tuberculosis education is an important facet in the treatment of the disease. In the Philippines, tuberculosis disproportionately affects the poor. It is often dubbed as a "poor man's disease" and the stigma makes it a difficult disease to deal with.
Per observation, Villanueva said, many afflicted patients, as well as their relatives, avoid seeking medical help for fear of being ostracized.
"With our anti-TB program, and with the help of the community, we are offering a better way of communicating information about the disease and plays a big role in removing the stigma, thus overcoming a common stumbling block in controlling TB," he said.
Villanueva said the World Vision has been doing charitable programs for the development of children in the poorest community in the country since 1947. Its major project is the Child Sponsorship Program, which bridges wealthy personalities, and businessmen in subsidizing the health and education for poor children in country.
He said the Christian organization group is currently servicing 300,000 children in the Philippines, adding that in global context, the group also "extends its project to almost 100 million people in 100 countries worldwide."
He said among their list of donors in the world includes billionaire and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. In the country, this includes TV personality Kris Aquino, and broadcast-journalist Karen Davilla. (Darwin Wee)
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