TB still a top killer of Pinoy kids, says health expert

Health experts are concerned about the high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among Filipino children.

Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, National Center for Disease Prevention and Control head, said TB meningitis is among the top 10 killers of Filipino children based on the mortality surveillance of the Department of Health (DOH) during the past five years.

"It is really alarming," she said. TB in children is commonly known in the Philippines as "primary complex."

Oliveros said TB meningitis is an extra-pulmonary type of TB that affects the meningi or cover of the brain.

There can also be TB in the bone and liver, she added.

Other cause of alarm in childhood TB is the inappropriate technique usually used by some doctors to diagnose the illness, Oliveros said.

Dr. Benjamin Sablan Jr., associate professor and coordinator for health services of the University of the Philippines-College of Medicine, said the public needs to be educated about TB.

"There is societal labeling of patients identified to have tuberculosis such that they are feared," he said. "Children with tuberculosis should not be isolated."

Sablan said adults and children have equal chances of getting the TB bacteria.

"For children, the complicated disease can be devastating especially for a child who develops TB meningitis," he said. "The effect of TB meningitis may be permanent especially in a growing child with a growing brain. The effect is more traumatic for children compared to adults."

Sablan said children are more vulnerable because they have younger immune system and younger set of antibodies that can fight the infection.

"TB is an infection with mycobacterium tuberculosis in adults or children," he said. "It can be in the lungs, the brain, anywhere in the liver. You can have an infection anywhere in the body with this particular bacteria."

People infected with mycobacterium TB may not develop active TB, unless they have weak immune system, Sablan said.

The DOH does not recommend the use of X-ray in examining children who are suspected to have TB because they have weaker immunity. Instead, it promotes skin test.

The Philippines ranks ninth among the 22 countries heavily burdened with TB.

It is estimated that 75 adult Filipinos die from the illness everyday.

There is no official figure on childhood TB but the DOH is planning to conduct a survey on this next year.

To battle TB, various programs have been introduced by health care providers, private sector and government agencies, with the support of international organizations.

Among them are Philippine Ambulatory Pediatric Association and the Defeat Childhood TB Movement of Pediatrica Inc. which are now implementing programs for the diagnosis and treatment of childhood TB, with the support of the Potts Foundation and the Alliance for the Control of Tuberculosis in Children.