CDO tops TB cases in Northern Mindanao

Cagayan de Oro City had the most tuberculosis (TB) cases and the incidence of TB infection among local government units (LGUs) in Northern Mindanao. Sun-Star Cagayan de Oro (www.sunstar.com.ph) reported Monday this was the assessment of Dr. Fe Bongcas, TB program manager of the City Health Office (CHO). Bongcas said a recent survey done by their anti-TB task force showed that more than 600 in every 1,000 persons tested positive for TB. She added their records showed that there are three TB-inflicted deaths per week and three TB cases testing positive per day in Cagayan de Oro. "We don’t rate an LGU’s (local government unit) number of TB cases on the basis of nationwide ranking, but on a regional level," she said. However, Bongcas said this is offset by the 85 percent detection rate done by local health officials in cooperation with barangay officials and health workers. Anti-TB task force barangay level chairperson Baby Lao said the rise in the number of TB cases can be attributed to more TB-afflicted persons coming out into the open. "We employ the buddy-buddy system in which the city residents get information and relay them to local health officials who try to encourage these patients to get treatment," Lao said. For his part, DOH Regional Director Julito Saburnido said the TB detection rate for Cagayan de Oro is surpassed only by Bukidnon province. "Together with other stakeholders the agency is coordinating efforts to eradicate TB incidence in Region 10 before 2015," Dr. Saburnido said. It was learned that new TB antibiotics were not developed owing to perception from First World countries that the disease mostly occurs among poor people. It was also learned that new TB drugs would only be made available sometime in 2015, with research on these new medicines already underway since the middle part of the new millennium. - GMANews.TV