Tuberculosis remains a major killer in Philippines
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuberculosis remains a major killer in Philippines*
At a Queson Institute ward in the Philippines, patients with drug
resistant tuberculosis receive treatment for free but must pay for
costly additional antibiotics and vitamins
MANILA, 14 June 2008 (IRIN) - Each of the dozen or so beds in an airy
ward in Quezon Institute, in Metro Manila, a private hospital dedicated
to fighting tuberculosis, has a story to tell.
Rosalinda Dunton, 71, wonders when she can go back home to Capiz
Province. She has been confined for three weeks now, suffering from a
complicated form of TB. Her granddaughter stayed with her throughout,
but with school opening next week, nobody will be by her bedside daily.
Next door is 60-year-old Juanita Gello-Agan, who was rushed to hospital
a few days before because her diabetes had been complicated by
tuberculosis. A nurse has just handed George, her son, a new list of
medicines. George told IRIN the combined effect of his unpaid leave to
care for his mother and the cost of medicines was taking its toll on his
family. "The impact on our finances is really big," he said.
A financial burden
The Quezon Institute is free, as are the TB medicines. But patients must
pay for the other antibiotics and vitamins prescribed, and in each of
the beds, the stories are similar - finances drained because of the
costly drugs and lives temporarily put on hold because of the ravaging
disease that still ranks number six among the leading causes of
morbidity and mortality in the Philippines.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the country has the
ninth highest number of tuberculosis cases in the world and the highest
in southeast Asia. Globally, there were more than nine million new cases
and about 1.7 million deaths from the disease in 2006; the WHO estimates
there are more than 14 million people living with TB, which kills 75
Filipinos each day, according to the Department of Health.
Rosalinda Dunton, 71, with her granddaughter. Dunton, who has been in
hospital for three weeks, suffers from a complicated form of tuberculosis
But over the years, the government, with the private sector and
humanitarian community, has steadily made gains against tuberculosis.
The DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short-course) programme,
recommended in the mid-1990s by the WHO, played an important role in
this success. DOTS required patients to take their medicine in front of
a health worker to ensure proper compliance with the entire treatment
programme.
Before its implementation, patients often sold their free medication to
other people once they started to feel better, Arnold Ortiz of the
Philippine Tuberculosis Society, which runs Quezon, told IRIN. "Because
of this poor compliance, patients develop multi-drug resistant
tuberculosis," he said.
Early detection and surveillance
DOTS consists of improved case detection through strengthened laboratory
testing and drug resistance surveillance, which, according to Maria
Lorela Averilla, monitoring and evaluation officer of the government's
National Tuberculosis Program, is key to fighting the disease. On
infected person can infect many more if left untreated.
Because of the success of DOTS, Averilla told IRIN, the Philippines is
one of the first four among the 22 "high burden" countries to have met
the WHO's targets of a 70 percent detection rate and an 85 percent cure
rate. The country's detection rate is 77 percent and its cure rate 89
percent. In 1990, there were 819 cases out of every 100,000 Filipinos;
in 2006, this dropped to 432. Mortality rates fell too, from 80 per
100,000 in 1990 to 45 per 100,000 in 2006.
Juanita Gello-Agan, 60, has diabetes complicated by tuberculosis. Her
son took leave from his work to care for his mother. The effect of his
unpaid leave and the cost of medicine has taken a heavy financial toll
on his family
These gains, however, are mostly against regular pulmonary tuberculosis.
Most challenging for health officials are new forms of multi-drug
resistant tuberculosis and complicated cases in which the patient has
other conditions, including diabetes and HIV/AIDS.
In fact, Ortiz said that because the government became aggressive in
fighting tuberculosis, admission rates at the Quezon Institute for
regular pulmonary tuberculosis dropped. The hospital trimmed bed
capacity four years ago and focused on treating complicated tuberculosis
cases.
Late diagnosis
"Most of the patients we lose are those who come in for treatment too
late, who live in far-flung areas and don't have easy access to medical
facilities and who do not comply with the treatment programmes given to
them," Ortiz told IRIN. "These are the ones who develop complicated or
multi-drug resistant tuberculosis," he said. "Despite all the efforts at
raising awareness, ignorance about tuberculosis remains high and the
stigma still associated with it keeps people from seeking treatment."
Averilla said that while multi-drug resistant tuberculosis used to be
treated only at private hospitals, it is now being addressed in public
health centres.
Policies have also been set in place to address TB acquired because of
other diseases. But she adds that, first and foremost, people have to
have health-seeking behaviour. "We have enough resources in public
health centres to treat tuberculosis," she says. "People just have to
come and avail themselves of them."