The measles outbreak

They’re filling up government hospitals and in San Lazaro Hospital alone, 60 patients have already died since the start of the year. A three year old became the latest fatality.

The story is the same – most cases begin with fever, cough, runny nose, and later on the infamous blotchy red rash appears.

An alarming measles outbreak is indeed spreading in the country.

But it’s not just politics that should be blamed for the situation. Unknown to many, there is big business, too – with billions of dollars in lobby money.

It’s true that the Dengvaxia scandal, triggered by the politics of hatred prevailing in this country, led to the drop in vaccination rate – to 40 percent last year from 80 percent in 2017.

But there’s more. It also had a lot to do with the government’s focus on non-communicable diseases or NCDs amid strong lobbying of global health advocates that are against the spread of NCDs and their risk factors such as tobacco and sugar.

These advocates are pushing for a one-size-fits-all health policy for all countries, including the Philippines.

NCDs are deadly, no doubt. Some examples are cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases. These diseases are common in affluent countries because of unhealthy lifestyles.

In recent decades, NCDs have become prevalent in the third world, too. We need to fight them, of course.

But to put more weight on preventing NCDs than communicable diseases such as measles is a big mistake.

We are forgetting that the Philippines is still a developing country where communicable or infectious diseases are so common.

Bacteria, viruses, and parasites that cause these diseases easily spread because many parts of the country still lack clean water and proper sanitation.

Yet, the government seems more fixated on preventing NCDs. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, during a UN General Assembly in New York last year, trumpeted to the whole world efforts to prevent and control NCDs.

There’s strong political will from government and strong partnership with civil society organizations “who continuously challenge the status quo and keep us on our toes,” Duque said.

He went on to highlight efforts to prevent NCDs such as sin tax policies and banning of foods that are high in sugar.

But focusing more on NCDs prevention and forgetting in the process the danger of communicable diseases is a disservice to this developing nation. The measles outbreak is an example of this. We have allowed international health advocates and global civil society groups – backed by strong foreign funding – to influence our health policies.

Last year, specialists from the United Nations Interagency Task Force on Prevention and Control of NCDs and the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat warned against NCDs.

They pushed for initiatives to lower the burden of NCDs in the Philippines such as taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages and effective tobacco control measures.

The argument for preventing NCDs is that one in three Filipinos die prematurely from NCDs before the age of 70.

But as I write this, children are in critical condition because of measles. Some of them may not even reach the age of seven.

Universal Health Care bill

The Universal Health Care (UHC) measure is now awaiting President Duterte’s signature. It will give Filipinos a better chance of survival from life-threatening diseases.

But some provisions may put taxpayers’ funds to waste such as allotting one percent of the health departments’ budget for health promotion programs. That’s estimated to be around P2.5 billion. Wouldn’t it be a waste of money to spend that on seminars and workshops or to hire more consultants for these “health promotion programs?”

We don’t need more of that. What we really need is to fight communicable diseases and one way to do it is to increase the budget for vaccines.

Malnutrition versus obesity

Health advocates are also pushing for anti-obesity measures such as restricting access to sugary drinks, which for them include yoghurt, milk, vitamin water and fruit shakes.

But isn’t it ironic? What we really have is a malnutrition problem, not obesity. With 3.3 million children who are stunted and 800,000 more who are malnourished, the Philippines ranks ninth among 10 countries in the world with the worst cases of malnutrition, along with famine and conflict stricken countries in Africa, according to Save the Children.

Health policy

We can’t let politics affect our public health policies, but we also shouldn’t allow so-called global health advocates dictate upon us solutions fit for first world problems.

For now, we have an alarming outbreak of a major communicable disease which is measles. The government should do whatever it takes to restore confidence in vaccines to prevent similar outbreaks in the future.

As a write this, a one year old is in critical condition in San Lazaro. The hospital is having a hard time coping.

Welcome to the third world, welcome to mayhem. Clearly, we have more than enough problems here to keep our hands full. So for now, let’s leave first world problems to the first world and focus on our own.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is eyesgonzales@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales.