TBpeople PH Discipleship: Tondo, Manila – NCR

After Pampanga and Laguna visits, TBPeople Philippines visited our 3^rd location. The Capital of the Philippines, Manila. We have visited and met with community leaders and met friendly and welcoming Health Centers Nurses and Health Workers in Tondo, Manila. Our mission is to introduce our Organization and our City Association Leaders.

Our First Stop is visiting Barangay 30 Zone 2 district 1 of Tondo, Manila. Our team was warmly greeted and welcomed by Barangay Captain Dennis Noviza together with Kagawad Nancy Erespe and Barangay Health Worker Bea Trish Joy Adorable. Danica Duran, DRTB Survivor and a resident of Barangay 30 is the appointed City Association Vice President. Barangay Captain Dennis shared how many people he was able to assist that had TB and even a close friend had been impacted of the disease. Kagawad Nancy shared how they treat reported cases sensitively to make sure that there will be little to no discrimination will be felt by the reported PWTB. The health center of Barangay 30 refers TB cases or PUI to Fugoso Health Center, which is our next stop. It was a great meet and greet with the team and we had a mini-TB education discussion as well. Captain Dennis said it will be a great help if information and in-depth details about TB can be taught in their barangay. They are very open in having a TB education/seminar with their rest of the barangay officials.

Our Next Stop is Fugoso Health Center, with a jurisdiction of 19,000 Manileños, Fugoso Health Center holds the largest number of people to take care of. Despite of having a big responsibility the Doctor, Nurses and Staff here were very welcoming. We Introduce our organization what we do and what our goal is, also introduced Danica as The Vice President, Danica had her DSTB treatment in Fugoso Health and Niño as President of the City Association. It was a short and sweet meet and greet with them but its memorable as they said that we are more than welcome and can come back anytime once we have everything in place as they need help in any form. Knowing our vision and goal we also look forward in making a strong partnership with Fugoso Health Center.

Our 3^rd location is the Doña Aurora Health Center. Even with their busy schedule due to covid vaccination, we’ve met the Health Center’s Doctor in charge and their TB coordinator. We were able to share our objective and Introduce TBPeople PH as an NGO that provides support to PWTBs and also Danica and Niño for the City Association leaders.

Overall, it was a very successful visit, TBPeople PH, Niño and Danica have been acknowledged as an ally and future partner. We are glad to share that we never had an unwelcomed feeling. Both health centers and all their staffs are very welcoming from the moment we set our foot on their respective centers.

TRIVIA: Did you know?!

Over 100,000 Filipinos may die of tuberculosis (TB) in the next five years or 20,000 TB deaths per year if TB services continue to be disrupted because of mobility restrictions brought about by COVID-19.

A modelling study by the Imperial College of London projected between 65,100 to 146,300 TB deaths may happen if local TB services remain limited in another year.

Since March 2020, disruption in regular TB services from consultation, testing, to treatment due to limited mobility have resulted in a drastic drop in the number of TB cases notified in the country. By the end of 2020, approximately 268,816 new and relapse TB cases were notified to DOH, a 35% decrease from 2019 data. Case notification is an important activity of the TB Program for finding and treating identified TB patients promptly will help reduce the spread of TB and set the course for its elimination.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) global TB report in 2020, the Philippines has the highest TB incidence rate in Asia, with 554 cases for every 100,000 Filipinos. – Press Release | 19 March 2021 (DOH, PARTNERS AIM TO GET TB CARE BACK ON TRACK, accessed May 28, 2022 <https://bit.ly/3t1kJIc>)

As of June 30, 2020, according to Department of Health’s Integration Tuberculosis Information System (DOH-ITIS), we have found and notified 1,233,956 TB CASES (TBfreePH, Reported TB Cases in the Philippines, accessed May 28, 2022 <https://tbfree.ph/>)