Health experts worried over disappearance of TB from public consciousness

MANILA, Philippines - Health experts yesterday expressed concern over the disappearance of tuberculosis (TB) in the public’s consciousness due to the stigma still associated with the illness.

Cleotilde Hidalgo How, board member of the Philippine Coalition Against TB (PhilCAT), said while cure for TB has long been found, the stigma remains, affecting “people’s perception of TB.”

“TB is not as sexy as HIV because we don’t have celebrities like Freddie Mercury. So even the funds, most of it went to HIV research and not to TB research,” she said in a press briefing commemorating the celebration of World TB Day on March 24.

Mercury was the British singer who contracted the AIDS virus and subsequently died of bronchopneumonia in November 1991. He was the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen.

How claimed that stigma “is an obstacle to compliance” of anti-TB treatment because infected individuals tend to shy away from the public eye than have their conditions known.

According to Jubert Benedicto, chair of the TB Council of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP), discrimination against TB is prevalent even in prisons where TB is “three to four times higher than (in) the general public.”

“Even among inmates, although they know they have TB, they do not come forward to get treatment because they are ashamed. They don’t want the other prisoners to know,” Benedicto said.

A PhilCAT fact sheet showed that “the threat of tubercle bacillus bacterium is still potent and prevalent in the country, with 75 and 90 Filipinos dying from TB daily.”

PhilCAT has identified malnutrition, overcrowding and poor sanitation as the biggest factors causing TB.

Rosalind Vianzon, program manager of the Department of Health’s (DOH) National TB Program, said that in 2010, around 150,000 TB cases were recorded.