EDITORIAL - Stopping TB

As Christians observe the rituals of Holy Week, millions of people will be offering prayers for loved ones who are suffering from or have died of tuberculosis. TB is Asia’s top killer infectious disease, according to the World Health Organization, and the illness remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Four people die of TB every minute around the globe; in Asia, the disease kills 1,000 people every day.

The tragedy, WHO officials point out, is that people need not rely solely on prayers when they are afflicted with TB. The disease can now be cured, and treatment is quicker when TB is diagnosed early. Even new strains that have shown resistance to traditional medication are being zapped with a cocktail of drugs. But there lies another tragedy, according to health officials – the failure to detect TB symptoms early, especially among children.

As World Stop TB Day is observed today, health experts blame inadequate public health care and laboratory services as well as low public awareness for the failure to detect TB early and give proper treatment to the afflicted. WHO officials estimate that a million TB cases go undetected every year in East Asia and the Pacific, contributing to the spread of the disease.

In the Philippines, health workers are focusing on diagnosis and treatment of TB among children through a program in Sta. Rosa, Laguna spearheaded by the Philippine Ambulatory Pediatric Association. PAPA officials point out that TB is a major health problem among Filipino children. If left untreated, TB is carried through adulthood when the disease becomes highly infectious. With support from the Department of Health, Sta. Rosa city officials and medical workers, the program has recorded a 98 percent treatment success rate since its launching in 2002.

Those involved in the program attribute the success to public access to quality-assured TB detection methods, proper case management, reporting and recording of cases for future assessment, uninterrupted supply of drugs to fight the disease, and sustained political commitment. Those elements must be kept in mind as the government renews its commitment to fight the scourge of tuberculosis.