The Valenzuela City government received medical tools for Tuberculosis (TB) patients from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Stop TB Partnership on Tuesday, Nov. 23.
“This is the first time we're getting hardware that will help us combat the scourge of TB and it is very timely that these equipment are mobile and handy because COVID has changed the paradigm or the mindset of people... Gone are the days where everybody has to come to a health facility, but rather, the health facility comes straight to your doorsteps. So this New Normal tool is really quite useful," Mayor Rex Gatchalian said.
The donated medical tool package from the two organizations can help more than 19,000 patients and will assist the city's health system to effectively screen, detect, treat, and prevent TB.
It includes 38 portable rapid diagnostic machines, eight ultra-portable chest x-ray machines that can be used outside hospitals, and Video Observed Treatment (VOT) that can monitor the treatment of patients using mobile phones.
It also features short-course medications for TB prevention that can help around 30,000 individuals, including children.
Valenzuela is the only city among the six beneficiaries of the project.
Other recipients of the medical tool package are the provinces of Bataan, Cebu, Laguna, Tarlac, and Cotabato Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho, Department of Health (DOH) Disease Prevention and Control Bureau (DPCP) director, said that good health literacy, an efficient health system, and a supportive socio-economic environment will help secure a "Healthy Pilipinas (Philippines)." “People must be the center of our care, of our services, and of our programs, not individual diseases... We have to communicate the same to the general public so that they recognize that it is them we are taking care of and it is not a specific disease, virus, or bacteria,” Ho reminded the city's medical frontliners.
The USAID, which was founded in November 1961, aims to help its partner countries in promoting health, social, and economic development.
Meanwhile, the Stop TB Partnership is a non-profit organization established in 1998, which aims to collaborate with different health groups to prevent the spread of tuberculosis.