Stamping out tuberculosis

Every Christmas, there is a seal. And in every seal, there is hope. It is the hope that, one day, the scourge of tuberculosis in the Philippines be finally ended.

Every year in December, the Philippine postal offices release thousands of Christmas stamps known as Christmas seals at the request of the Philippine Tuberculosis Society. Its objective: To educate citizens and finance the Society’s efforts in fighting tuberculosis or TB.

Tuberculosis remains a major health problem in the Philippines today. It is the fifth major cause of death with 75 Filipinos dying of the disease daily. Our nation is cited as one of the 16 countries where tuberculosis remains uncontrolled. In the Asia-Pacific region, the country has the most reported cases of the dreaded disease.

The Philippine Tuberculosis Society is a non-stock, non-profit charitable institution established in 1910 by a group of concerned Filipinos and Americans. At that time, the country’s eight million inhabitants were threatened by a TB mortality rate of 480 in a group of 100,000 people.

One of the Society’s initial projects made use of Christmas seals to finance its meager resources. Its first stamp used the image of Dr. Jose P. Rizal.

The use of Christmas seals by anti-TB organizations is not new. It all started more than a century ago with a doctor named Edward Livingston Trudeau.

Shortly after graduating from medical school in 1871, Dr. Trudeau was horrified to learn he had somehow contracted tuberculosis while taking care of his brother who was similarly affected. In those days, TB was regarded as an incurable disease and victims were regarded almost like the lepers in biblical times. Known as the "white plague," once TB was diagnosed, one can expect only a slow, lingering and painful death, along with disfigurement, as the inevitable conclusion.

Thus, utterly devoid of hope and to protect his family, Dr. Trudeau withdrew to the Adirondack Mountains to die. To his surprise, the rest and the fresh air of the mountains made him well. His experiences became the foundation for the basic TB treatment, namely that rest and fresh air were needed for the body to fight off the infection.

After his recovery, Dr. Trudeau set up the first tuberculosis hospital at Saranac Lake, New York. While there were so many who scoffed at his ideas, patients under Trudeau’s care got well and became productive citizens once more. There were others who studied his ideas and emulated his ways, not only in the US but in other countries as well, setting up their own anti-TB institutions. In most of these projects as with Trudeau’s, money was a perpetual problem. Money needed to pay for construction materials and the wages of doctors and nurses.

In 1904, a postal employee named Einar Holboell saw a poor penniless waif shuffling outside the window of the postal office where he worked one dark Christmas Eve. He wondered if there was some way he could help such kids. Perhaps he was looking at the Christmas letters he was sorting when an idea struck him. Suppose people bought an extra stamp every time they mailed a letter or parcel? And suppose the money went to a special fund for the children? With thousands of people sending letters and parcels at Christmas, the fund would quickly grow to mammoth proportions. Very excited at the idea, he introduced it to his fellow postmen who received it enthusiastically.

The King of Denmark Christian IX, upon hearing the idea, embraced it wholeheartedly and requested the people of Denmark to buy the new Christmas seals. Being a popular ruler, his portrait, along with the queen’s, became the first seal design. Combined with the warm-hearted nature of the Danes, it conclusively netted four million seal purchases the following Christmas. It was decided that children afflicted with TB, the ones who were most in need at the time, were to be the main recipients of the project. After two Christmases, two new TB children’s hospitals were swiftly built from the proceeds of the seals alone!

With this came a turning point in the fight against TB. For the first time, the average citizen was now involved. Holboell’s idea was emulated and implemented by other anti-TB organizations all over the world, including the Philippine Tuberculosis Society when it released its first seal with the image of Dr. Jose P. Rizal.

Over the decades, the Society has released several designs. And every year, thousands of suffering TB patients, notably charity patients and those from the provinces, receive treatment and medicines from PTS branches and domiciliary teams, thanks to the funds generated by Christmas seals. In the last four years, there has been a steadily increasing involvement by Filipino contemporary artists in designing the Filipino anti-TB seal stamp for local and even international distribution.

Recently, the Society won second place with this artist’s "Mabuhay Philippines" designs in the 2003 Anti-TB Stamp Design Contest of the Union Internationale Contre La Tuberculose et Les Maladies Respiratoires held in Paris, France. Union is an international organization dedicated to the prevention and control of tuberculosis and lung disease on a worldwide basis. Every year, the organization holds a seal contest at the World Conference on Lung Health as part of its fund-raising activities.

The first prize was awarded to the Canadian Lung Association while the third prize went to the Mexico for the Comite Nation de Luch Contra la Tuberculosis.

So remember, the next time you send letters, greeting cards or parcels to your acquaintances, know that you can also help someone else’s friend or family. With an anti-TB seal stamp, you give the gift of life to someone, alongside your own gifts.

All it takes is an extra stamp. Seal it not only with a kiss but also with hope.