Saturday, July 19, 2008 Revilla: Collaboration in TB treatment By Dr. Ruel G. Revilla Light That Transforms
TUBERCULOSIS (TB) has been a major health problem in the Philippines for many years. About 75 Filipinos die of TB everyday making it the eighth leading cause of death in the country (2006).
Based on the National TB Prevalence Survey in 2005, Baguio City has the lowest case detection rate. Thus, we saw the urgent need of improving the detection of TB cases by employing a proven and effective strategy of treating it, which is through the Public-Private Mix Dots (PPMD).
The first private-initiated PPMD was established in the Philippines in 1995. It is a strategy to increase case detection rate, and synchronize diagnosis and treatment of TB in the public and private sectors.
In March 2007, the PPMD TB Dots Center at the Saint Louis University (SLU) Hospital of the Sacred Heart (HSH) was launched by SLU led by Fr. Jessie Hechanova, Philippine Coalition Against Tuberculosis, Cordillera Coalition Against Tuberculosis (Corcat) and the Department of Health-CAR led by regional director Dr. Myrna Cabotaje. The Center is headed by Dr. Ruel Revilla.
Our SLU-HSH PPMD TB Dots Center aims to increase the case detection rate, and achieve and maintain a cure rate of 85 percent. The Center offers sputum AFB examination to all symptomatic cases and provides free anti-TB medication for a period of six months to qualified patients.
The gargantuan task of screening TB patients and giving them free medications depends not only on the PPMD unit staff, but also on the teams of experts who meet and discuss the difficult cases.
There are two TB Diagnostic Committees each composed of a pulmonologist, a radiologist, an infectious disease specialist and public health medical practitioners. The first team that meets at the Baguio Health Department is composed of Dr. Manuel Bautista, Dr. Danilo Torres, Dr. Xenia Fabay and Dr. Ma. Felicidad Ganga. The second team consisting of Dr. Revilla, Dr. Rey Anthony Leung, Dr. Ma. Felicidad Ganga, and Rebecca Guanzon, meets at the SLU TB Dots office.
Since the SLU-HSH PPMD unit started operating, 596 symptomatics and 218 asymptomatics have been referred to the Center for sputum examinations of which 70 new smear positive TB cases were diagnosed.
With this accomplishment therefore, the SLU-HSH PPMD unit was able to contribute to Baguio's case detection rate by 10 percent during its first year of existence.
The modest initial success of the SLU-HSH PPMD unit lies in our ability to encourage the active participation of its private practitioners, as well as the continuous collaboration with our partners in the government, neighboring hospitals, NGOs and other advocacy groups such as Corcat.
To borrow a quote from Blessed Mother Theresa, "The greatest miracle is not that we are doing what we are supposed to do but that we are enjoying this work."
For inquiries, you may visit or call the SLU-HSH Public-Private Mix Dots Center located at the first basement of the SLU Hospital of the Sacred Heart main building (just below the Emergency Room); tel. nos. (074) 442-4033 or 442-5700 (to 02) local 541. The Center's staff members are Dr. Ruel Revilla, Barbara Christine Sacayanan-Rios (nurse) and Sherry Anne Marrero (medical technologist/sputum microscopist).
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