MANILA — Although the Philippines has been steadily growing in economy, healthcare coverage is still lacking for many citizens, which has contributed to the prominence of tuberculosis in the Philippines. Tuberculous (TB) is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly effects the lungs.
TB is preventable and is cured through a course of antimicrobial drugs. However, it is also very easily spread; the bacteria travels through the breath and saliva of an infected person, reaching those in close contact. TB is likely to remain dormant for a spell, and those who have been infected are unaware they have contracted the bacteria.
Symptoms of active TB are cough, fever, night sweats and possible weight-loss. These symptoms tend to be mistaken for other, less severe, illnesses which prevent people from seeking timely treatment. Unfortunately, the disease can be fatal when treatment is delayed, especially for those with weakened immune systems.
In 2014, there were 290,000 new cases of TB reported in the Philippines, on top of the 410,000 people already living with the active disease, and 10,000 deaths from TB related infections. While the amount of newly infected is slowly declining, there has been a significant decrease in deaths from tuberculosis in the Philippines, cutting the number of mortalities by nearly two thirds in two years, thanks to the determination of USAID.
Beginning in 2012, USAID launched a program to treat and control the growth of tuberculosis in the Philippines. They designed remote smearing stations for the testing and treatment of TB. Nurses have also been mobilized to reach rural areas, collecting cultures that will be examined in pop-up laboratories of the smearing stations.
The local government works in unison with USAID to provide the supplies needed to gather and examine the samples. A healthcare worker typically reviews 10 to 15 TB sputum slides per week, and the results are available in seven days. The best prevention of TB is early detection.
USAID has continued to expand off of the network they have created, by providing Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) services for treatment of TB, as well as monitoring drug resistant strains, and enhancing communication between private and public healthcare sectors to ensure timely treatment of TB.
One factor impeding the eradication of tuberculosis in the Philippines has to do with the infection itself. TB is not always detected by the screening process, and the bacteria continues to mutate making treatments that were once effective ineffective, referred to as multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). More than 11,000 Filipino’s suffer from this form of TB, which causes long-term side effects, and is much more expensive to treat.
Fortunately, a new medicine to treat this specific strain has been developed, with the partnership of USAID and Janssen Therapeutic, this treatment, bedaquiline, has been available in the Philippines since the beginning of June, 2016.
Janssen Therapeutic has introduced and will be donating over 30,000 rounds of treatment for those suffering from MDR-TB in the Philippines. USAID and the Filipino Department of Health are confident that the improvement of prevention, detection and treatment of tuberculosis in the Philippines will only continue to become stronger.
– Amy Whitman
Photo: Flickr