Progress in detection, treatment of TB

Published: June 13, 2008 | Author: Krystina Orozco
Total Views: 678 | Philippine News

SAN FRANCISCO — Despite the struggle to combat tuberculosis, a significant progress in both detection and treatment of the disease has brought a ray of hope, specifically in the Philippines.After the first ever TB facility called the Tuberculosis Center opened in Manila Spring of 2008 by the Tropical Disease Foundation in partnership with the World Lung Foundation and other funding partners, the severity of tuberculosis is finally being recognized on an international level. “The Philippines sits at the crossroad of these advancements and of future opportunities,” said Executive Director of the World Lung Foundation, Peter Baldini, and Director of Tuberculosis Control and Prevention, I.D. Rusen, in an op-ed entitled ‘More Progress Must be Made to Combat TB Across the Globe and in the Philippines.’

This first international TB center is a state-of-the-art facility that provides research, training, and a consistent supply of medication to patients in the Philippines that can be distributed all throughout Asia. Specifically, the center hosts a TB Clinic, a laboratory and a new International Training Course in Multi-Drug Resistant TB, a disease marked as the most dangerous and fastest growing. Clinicians recently began the new curriculum this May. “Indeed, the Filipino medical community is working closely with government, private sector donors. Together, they are providing cutting-edge TB treatment and medication, as well as training courses on how to prevent, treat, and combat TB,” said Baldini and Rusen. Tuberculosis is a common infectious and deadly disease that is caused by mycobacterium. It most commonly attacks the lungs, but can target the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, genitourinary system, joints, and even the skin. TB is commonly transmitted through the air usually in overcrowded, urban centers.

“In Manila, most progress in fighting the disease, while others are being treated successfully,” explained Rusen to Philippine News. Still, the mad truth rests in the 78 people who die from TB every day in the Philippines, and according to the World Health Organization, is the sixth greatest cause of both morbidity and mortality among Filipinos. Outside Philippine boundaries, an unsettling number of more than a million-and-a-half people die from the disease year by year, said Baldini and Rusen. An untreated person with active TB can affect an average of 10 to 15 people only over a year. While putting other countries into scope, an ugly total of 45 nations unfortunately carry the disease as well. On the upside, TB is both preventable and curable. Baldini reports that of those 30 million people testing positive for TB, 84 percent of them have been cured simply from the basis of early detection.

Where prevention and early detection are of utmost priority, the center will be implementing an automated drug inventory system in the Philippines, one in which will ensure a reliable supply of fresh medicine and at the same time, will have the benefit of cutting down costs of all the steps for the production of vital TB medicines. Therefore, health care becomes more effective and economic. “But this does not signal a time to relax our commitment to fighting this global killer. Indeed, it is a time to create the incentives that will lead to sustainable public health services, new vaccines and treatments with shorter regimes,” said Baldini and Rusen.

The fight against TB did not just stop at the completion of the Tuberculosis Center; it became a type of advocacy that continues on today. First, the government should uphold a better and stronger recommitment to controlling the disease, said Baldini and Rusen. Second, according to Bill Gates, the business world should engage more in creative capitalism where community-based prevention and ground-up solutions are as worthy as the works of science and technology.

Also included amongst the authors’ pointers is the encouragement for scientific and medical communities to engage themselves heavily with the government, private sectors, and donors to move forward. “Treating and curing nearly all tuberculosis globally is within our reach,” said Baldini and Rusen. “The good feeling I get from this great movement is from witnessing the Filipino community in the Philippines coming together to raise awareness creatively and enthusiastically through village dances and fundraisers in efforts to support and offer a great deal of involvement in the cause,” said Rusen.