USAID lauds PHL as global champion against tuberculosis

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has recognized the Department of Health for its achievements in the global fight against tuberculosis, which kills 23,000 Filipinos and 1.5 million people worldwide every year.

In a news release on Tuesday, the agency said it would award the Philippines through the DOH with the TB Champion Award on World Tuberculosis Day, which was on that same day, March 24.

“The TB Champion Award recognizes the Philippines’ outstanding work in the fight against TB. Adopting proven TB care strategies, the DOH successfully scaled up quality treatment of multidrug-resistant TB and expanded coverage and treatment of adults and children suffering from TB,” the statement said.

“These efforts have enabled the country to achieve – three years ahead of the 2015 deadline – the Millennium Development Goal target of reducing by half TB prevalence and mortality rates relative to the 1990 baseline,” it continued.

Philippines Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia Jr. accepted the award on behalf of the DOH in a ceremony in Washington D.C., while Health Secretary Janette Garin accepted the recognition from USAID Philippines Mission Director Gloria Steele in a counterpart ceremony in Batangas City.

Tuberculosis remains of the top ten causes of death in the country, which recorded 290,000 new cases this year. — Andrei Medina/BM, GMA News