Infectious diseases on the rise
IN response to the polio outbreak that was declared last September 19, the government, with the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund ( Unicef) and a number of private, charitable organizations, rolled out massive outbreak immunization activities in the National Capital Region and Mindanao. From October 14 to 27, more than 1.6 million
received oral polio vaccine type 2 in Metro Manila, Davao City and in the provinces of Davao del Sur and Lanao del Sur. With
and a fourth case of polio virus infection in Datu Piang, Maguindanao and Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat, respectively, immunization activities reaching 18,268
and Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, and Lambayong, were conducted in early November.
Save the Children, Philippine Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Committee of the Red Cross, Americares,
Doctors Without Borders, Plan, Samaritan’s Purse, Action Against Hunger, and International Medical Corps joined hands with Unicef and the WHO to help the government achieve the polio immunization campaign target. While overall, 95.5 percent of the target was met in the October activities, the rate for Lanao del Sur was only 85 percent. This is unfortunate as the first confirmed case was in Marogong, Lanao del Norte. Another 3.1 million children under 5 in Mindanao are targeted in the next rounds of vaccination.
WHO and Unicef continue to assess the risk for further polio transmission in the country as “high at the national level, because of chronically suboptimal immunisation coverage, sub- optimal performance of [ acute flaccid paralysis] surveillance, and poor sanitation and hygiene conditions” ( Polio Situation Report, Nov. 9, 2019).
Poor sanitation and hygiene are also seen by the WHO as “contribution factors” in the high mortality rate in the 2019 dengue outbreak. Other factors are poverty, geographical remoteness, malnutrition and “a chronic shortage of ( adequately trained) health staff” ( WHO Philippines Dengue Situation Report 9, Nov. 5, 2019).
Out of 371,717 dengue cases, 1,407 deaths have been reported from January 1 to October 19. The number of dengue cases is 106 percent higher than in 2018 and the highest in 10 years.
The Philippines is also seeing increasing numbers of tuberculosis and HIV infections. According to Dr. Gundo Aurel Weiler, WHO representative for the Philippines,
“about one million Filipinos have active TB disease. This is the third highest prevalence rate in the world, after South Africa and Lesotho” (WHO, March 24, 2019). The Philippines, Dr. Weiler stated, “is among the few countries where the number of people with TB continues to increase every year.” The WHO representative called on all sectors to support TB eradication, and especially for government to
human resources” for screening and monitoring.
TB is also associated with HIVAIDS as many AIDS- afflicted persons develop TB as their compromised immune systems deteriorate. Here there is again bad news. While the Philippines remains a “low HIV- prevalence country” with less than 0.1 percent of the population estimated to be HIV positive, the rate of new infections is alarming and has been in recent years. The group most at risk is men having sex with men ( MSM). Four in five, or 80 percent, of HIV- positive cases belong to this group. As early as 2010, researchers Louie Mar Gangcuangco, Regine Berba, Derick Erl Sumalapao, and Maria Lourdes Tan concluded that “the steep rise of HIV in MSM in the Philippines is alarming” (conference paper from July 2010). “The prevalence of HIV among MSM in Manila is high,” the four researchers wrote. Three years later Berba, Gangcuangco and Tan further concluded that “urgent interventions are needed to address the HIV epidemic in the Philippines” (
September 2013).
Polio, measles ( the Philippines was No. 3 after Madagascar and Ukraine) and dengue outbreaks, and tuberculosis and HIV are putting tremendous strain on the nation’s already inadequate and underfunded public health care system.
And that is unfortunate. Health is indeed wealth, for us as individuals, for the family and for the nation. The Department of Health wanted to impose higher taxes on salty food to lower people’s consumption of food that causes hypertension, heart and kidney diseases, among others. While such a tax might indeed eventually lead to improved diets and thus better health, it will hit the poorest Filipinos the hardest. Healthy alternatives such as fruits, vegetables and fish are relatively expensive for most Filipinos. The government must first invest some of the billions it is already collecting from its new taxes on delivering better services: address the state of sanitation and hygiene, improve staffing of existing government- run health units, build more health units, especially in remote corners of the country, ensure stable supply of basic medicines in government health facilities, to mention some areas that need urgent improvement. Health is a matter of national interest.