CEBU CITY — An infectious disease center will soon rise within the government-owned Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) here.
SEN. Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. leads the groundbreaking for the construction of the Regional Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine Building at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (Calvin D. Cordova)
Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. on Thursday, August 29, led the groundbreaking of the VSMMC Regional Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine Building.
Revilla’s office facilitated the release of the P120-million budget for the first phase of the project.
“This is the request of our beloved governor (Gwen Garcia) and our congressmen here. We really need this and I’m very supportive of the need of the Cebuanos,” Revilla said.
The construction of the eight-story building will be conducted in phases. The first phase, which will involve the first and second floors of the building, will be completed this November.
The first floor of the building will have six ward beds, a treatment room, a triage area, laboratory, satellite billing station, pharmacy, and nurses’ station with a dedicated toilet.
The second floor will have seven ward rooms with a total of 42 ward beds, a single-bed treatment room, nourishment room, and a medicine preparation room.
“This is a promise that we fulfilled. This is just the first phase and we will finish this next year. Another P120 million may be needed to finish this. We will fight for this. We now have the budget hearing. We will make sure that this building will be finished,” Revilla said.
Among those who joined the groundbreaking ceremony was Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa.
Herbosa thanked Revilla for funding the construction of the building.
“I told the senator that this is not a cost. This is an investment to the human capital of the Filipino people. What’s the use of being rich but you are sickly, you have tuberculosis, you have leptospirosis, you have dengue. All infectious diseases, you have to be able to treat and all Filipinos must have access to medicines, diagnosis, and treatments for all these infectious diseases,” said Herbosa.
Herbosa said the facility is much-needed as the Philippines ranked fourth in the world with the highest number of new tuberculosis cases.
“It shows that we’re doing something wrong (in the fight against TB),” said Herbosa.
Herbosa said the center will also help fight the increasing number of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cases.
“There are 55 new HIV cases a day and I know Cebu is not immune to this,” said Herbosa.
Department of Health-Central Visayas Regional Director Dr. Jaime Bernadas said that outside Metro Manila, Cebu has the highest case of HIV in the country.
“These are all infectious diseases and we need modern equipment, modern diagnostic techniques so we can treat them all to prevent outbreak, pandemic,” said Herbosa.