Department of Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa issued a warning on Thursday, March 14, about the alarming rise of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the Philippines.
The latest data from the DOH revealed 612,534 new and relapse TB cases reported as of Dec. 31, 2023.
It noted that this translates to a case notification rate (CNR) of 549 cases per 100,000 population, significantly higher than the 2022 CNR.
Meanwhile, Herbosa emphasized that despite efforts to combat TB, the numbers continue to climb.
Among the reported cases, 86 percent underwent testing using rapid diagnostic tools, indicating the scale of the problem.
Complicating matters is the limited data availability on fatalities directly caused by TB.
Moreover, the DOH said that for the reporting year 2023, a total of 10,426 cases with "died" outcomes were reported, highlighting the urgent need for more comprehensive data collection and analysis.
To address this, Herbosa outlined proactive measures similar to those employed during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We started on an active case finding methodology so when you look for something, you will find more, we went out looking for active cases, if they have symptoms we’ve to take their X-ray and we do a GeneXpert test so we found more,” Herbosa said.
Despite the challenges, Herbosa remains optimistic that by intensifying efforts to detect and treat TB cases, the DOH can mitigate the spread of the disease and save lives.
The 2023 data, however, is not yet finalized, and Herbosa stressed the importance of ongoing surveillance and data collection to better understand and address the TB epidemic in the Philippines.