21 December 2005
Alaminos, pilot area for anti-TB project
ALAMINOS CITY – The city of Alaminos was chosen pilot area for the country’s first public and private cooperation in the eradication of tuberculosis, still the number one killer disease in the Philippines today.
The project was launched Thursday by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, represented by Ernesto Beltran, regional vice president of the Philippine Health Corporation (PhilHealth) in Northern Luzon.
The project will be jointly undertaken by and among the Rural Health Unit, the city government of Alaminos headed by Mayor Hernani Braganza, PhilHealth and Philippine Coalition Against Tuberculosis (PCAT), a private group.
Beltran said the city of Alaminos, through its RHU, will determine the TB patients who will undergo two-month continuous therapy under the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) for TB.
Braganza hailed the project that seeks to make Alaminos City TB-free in a short period, making itself as the model throughout the country.
Under the program, the DOH will provide the local RHU with all the medicines needed by the patients under the DOTS program for the TB patients. The RHU will strictly monitor the daily therapy of TB patients to ensure complete success.
On the other hand, PhilHealth will provide the salaries of extra personnel employed by the RHU to monitor patients and defray cost of their laboratory requirements, at P4,000 per patient.
Beltran said TB patients will not pay anything for the medicines given them. If they were to buy these from drug stores, each patient would pay P60,000 for the whole therapy course.
Regular monitoring of patients is needed in order to ensure that they really take their medicines daily for them to avoid relapse in which case, they may be dropped from the program.
The project was launched Thursday by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, represented by Ernesto Beltran, regional vice president of the Philippine Health Corporation (PhilHealth) in Northern Luzon.
The project will be jointly undertaken by and among the Rural Health Unit, the city government of Alaminos headed by Mayor Hernani Braganza, PhilHealth and Philippine Coalition Against Tuberculosis (PCAT), a private group.
Beltran said the city of Alaminos, through its RHU, will determine the TB patients who will undergo two-month continuous therapy under the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) for TB.
Braganza hailed the project that seeks to make Alaminos City TB-free in a short period, making itself as the model throughout the country.
Under the program, the DOH will provide the local RHU with all the medicines needed by the patients under the DOTS program for the TB patients. The RHU will strictly monitor the daily therapy of TB patients to ensure complete success.
On the other hand, PhilHealth will provide the salaries of extra personnel employed by the RHU to monitor patients and defray cost of their laboratory requirements, at P4,000 per patient.
Beltran said TB patients will not pay anything for the medicines given them. If they were to buy these from drug stores, each patient would pay P60,000 for the whole therapy course.
Regular monitoring of patients is needed in order to ensure that they really take their medicines daily for them to avoid relapse in which case, they may be dropped from the program.
