Partnership to find, treat 2.5M Filipinos with TB

The Department of Health (DOH) has forged a partnership with three international bodies to find and treat some 2.5 million Filipinos infected with tuberculosis (TB) by 2022.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the agency has signed a joint pledge of support with the World Health Organization, United States for International Development and Global Fund to also take Philippines off the list of countries with the highest TB burden in the world.

“For years, many Filipinos have suffered from TB. We all need to accelerate our efforts to end TB in the Philippines,” he said.

Based on a 2017 global report, approximately 581,000 Filipinos were diagnosed with active TB disease and 27,000 Filipinos were reported to have died of TB.

Duque noted the government is committed to find and treat some 2.5 million Filipinos with TB by 2022, a target that was pledged at the 2018 UN High Level General Assembly in New York City.

“TB is curable, and together we can prevent thousands of preventable deaths from TB,” he added.

The health chief assured that the DOH shall “be accountable and continue to work with its partners to make health systems more responsive to patient needs.”

Under the partnership, the four agencies will implement a “business not-as-usual” approach to accelerate TB response with the international agencies providing strategic packages of technical assistance, supplies, and human resources to fast track TB programming in the country.

The US government is also investing over P3 billion in projects that support the National Tuberculosis Control Program.