DOH expects TB reversal by 2015

The Department of Health (DOH) is hopeful that it can contain tuberculosis by 2015 since the country has been making progress in its anti-TB campaign over the last decade.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that in 1988, the Philippines ranked seventh among 22 countries heavily burdened by the disease, but dropped to ninth place in 2004.

"In 2005, we were the only high-burden country to have surpassed the targets in terms of case detection and maintained treatment success rate," he said.

Duque referred to the "Global Plan: To Stop TB (2001-2006)" program in which the multi-sector Stop TB Partnership planned to diagnose 70 percent of TB infections and treat 90 percent of these diagnosed cases. He added that the Philippines is only four percentage points shy of attaining the target of curing 85 percent of cases, "but we are positively getting there."

The Stop TB Partnership launched yesterday another global plan, this one covering the period from 2006 to 2015.

According to Dr. Giorgio Rosigno, a member of the partnership’s executive committee, the new goals are treating 50 million TB patients by 2015, including 800,000 patients with multi-drug resistant TB, and to provide anti-retroviral treatment to some three million patients who have TB and are positive for the human immunodeficiency virus.

Rosigno said they also hope to shorten TB treatment regimens from six months to two months and introduce the first new anti-TB drug in 40 years, as well as a vaccine for adult patients. He is also the chief executive officer for the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostic.

In the Philippines, about 133 of every 100,000 people are infected with TB bacilli. Every day, 75 Filipinos die from the disease.