MANILA 2nd District Representative Rolando Valeriano urged the Department of Health (DOH) Secretary to address concerns over the tuberculosis (TB) cases in Tondo, citing the potential spread following the recent disasters.
Valeriano, who also chairs the House of Representatives committee on Metro Manila Development, called on DOH’s Secretary Teodoro Herbosa for a quick action to prevent the upsurge of the TB cases.
“I trust Health Secretary Ted Herbosa and the DOH Tuberculosis Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course (TB DOTS) program will swiftly and properly stem any sudden spikes in tuberculosis in Tondo and other densely populated areas in the City of Manila,” said Valeriano.
Alarm on TB cases was raised on Tondo after the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders reported last August that 4.3 percent of 29,291 individuals or around 1,280 people were diagnosed withTB. This was higher than the country’s average of 3 percent TB positivity.
In his statement, Valeriano said that the increase in TB cases could be a result of fires and flooding, where residents were forced to mingle with each other as they seek shelter in evacuation centers.
“Any current and recent incidence of TB in Tondo is probably the aftermath of recent fires and flooding that forced residents to flee to evacuation centers, causing TB to spread,” Valeriano said.
Valeriano also called on the coordination between DOH and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on the relief efforts.
“Responsibility is with the DOH to make the DOH prophylaxis or treatment regimen fully available and for DSWD to facilitate and coordinate,” he added. “I trust DOH and DSWD will take it from here and do what they must ASAP.”
Last September, DOH reported that there was a shortage of anti-tuberculosis drugs, and that it will not be able to cover the 365,000 targeted TB patients for this year. It is only good for 189,647 individuals.
This shortage could be attributed to the global scarcity of the active pharmaceutical ingredient in rifampicin-based drugs. This might have led to DOH’s unsuccessful procurement of first-line anti-TB drugs in October and December 2023.
“Given these two unsuccessful procurements, ongoing preparations for another bidding are already underway. Should this succeed, the earliest that we can have the items is January 2025,” said DOH in September.
According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report in 2024, TB has killed 1.25 million people across the globe in 2023, making it again as the world’s leading infectious disease killer, surpassing COVID from 2020-2022.
Meanwhile, the Philippines remains among the top 8 countries “high-burden” countries in terms of TB incidence.
