Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial on Friday called for a united action against Tuberculosis (TB) which remains as the 8th leading cause of illness and death in the country.
“The DoH (Department of Health) alone cannot win this fight against Tuberculosis, I am encouraging all to support the government’s actions to achieve this victory soon. All for Health towards Health for All. Achieve TB Elimination!” Ubial said.
The secretary made the call as she led the annual celebration of World TB Day at the Quezon Institute Compound, Quezon City, bearing the theme, “Sama-Samang Tuldukan ang TB.”
She said the DoH is aiming to turn tuberculosis, a prevalent disease, into a rare disease by 2022 or by the end of President Duterte’s term.
“When you say elimination, we mean to detect and treat all tuberculosis cases to make it a rare disease from a very prevalent disease,” Ubial explained.
She said to make tuberculosis a rare illness, there should be only one case for every 10,000 persons.
At present, the incidence of tuberculosis is at 323 per 100,000 persons; which translates to about three in every 10,000 individuals.
According to DoH, the National TB Program detected 294,907 TB patients and all of them have started their treatment.
“For the past several years, the country has maintained nearly 90% treatment success rate. Recently, this was at 92%,” the DoH reported. (Charina Clarisse L. Echaluce)