DepEd set to adopt DOH TB program

The Department of Education will adopt the Comprehensive and Unified Policy on Tuberculosis Control in the Philippines, a program started by the Department of Health in their aim to prevent Tuberculosis in the school populace.

DepEd, through its Health and Nutrition Center, hopes to strengthen its own TB Prevention and Control program, wherein under the partnership, the DOH will assist the DepEd’s own anti-TB program while the DepEd itself will be responsible for the integration of TB prevention messages in schools, it said.

The DepEd’s Regional Directors and School Division superintendents will supervise the implementation of the program.

Its components include dissemination and education on health information, health service delivery, regular monitoring of the program’s implementation and accomplishments, collaboration with Parent-Teacher-Community Associations, and solicitation of administrative support for funding and other needs, it said.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the local government units, non-government organizations, and parents-teachers associations will also be involved in the execution of the program.

“The support of the whole community is vital in this campaign. Ensuring their well-being is essential in boosting the academic performance of our educators and pupils in our schools,” Lapus said.

The incidence of tuberculosis cases in Cebu City is increasing based on the number of clients recorded by the 81 barangay health centers in the city.

Cebu City Health Department TB program coordinator Susan Adlawan said the different health centers have recorded almost 3,000 TB cases from January to June this year compared to the 4,124 total TB cases in 2006.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by bacteria and commonly affects the lungs but can also involve other organs of the body.  Non-stop coughing especially with sputum of more than two weeks is a common symptom while other symptoms include fatigue, weight loss, night sweats and fever.

Adlawan said the patients who visited the health centers are TB symptomatic which means that they have cough for more than two weeks already. These patients are made to undergo sputum test at no cost and are given free medicines courtesy of the DOH-7, Adlawan added.

Of the 4,124 cases last year, 870 cases were found to be afflicted with infectious TB, Adlawan said.  These people have active TB which means the infection is spreading in the body and when the lungs are infected, they become TB carriers and spread the disease to others.

TB is an airborne disease.  A person can become infected with tuberculosis bacteria when he or she inhales minute particles of infected sputum in the air.  The bacteria get into the air when someone who has a tuberculosis lung infection coughs, sneezes, shouts, or spits.  People who are nearby can then possibly breathe the bacteria into their lungs.  — Jasmin R. Uy/BRP