DOH 7 to TB Patients: Don’t Hide

The Department of Health (DOH) regional office in Central Visayas has urged tuberculosis (TB) patients to immediately consult with the nearest health center in their areas.

Dr. Jocelyn Tabotabo, Registered Nurse, Regional Tuberculosis Nurse Program Coordinator made this appeal during the AGIO forum held at DOH7 last week.

Tabotabo said here in region 7 they are tasked to find around 19,000 TB cases based on the approximate ratio of 7 million population here.

This is a given ratio given by the national health office with 275 TB cases per 1000 population, Tabotabo said.

But in 2014, the DOH 7 only came up with 14,203 TB cases.

“So we are appealing to those people who are in this kind of health problem not to hide, to avoid spreading this disease to the community,” Tabotabo said.

She added, every health center has provided with free medicines for this purpose and every barangay healtn worker is already trained how to detect the disease and to apply the effective medicines for the patient.

Tabotabo said that they are working now double time so that by the year 2020, they could possibly reach and find the total of 19,000 TB cases here, “to comply our task,” she said.

One of the causes of hiding is the stigma of being discriminated by the society until the patient dies, and another cause are patients who are diagnosed or admitted in the private hospitals but not properly reported to the DOH, she said.

“That’s why in this era we already trained private doctors and nurses and even the barangay health workers who are considered as our frontliners in the community so that everything should be properly recorded in our office”, Tabotabo said.

“The government provides us enough funds for the purpose so we better avail of this benefit,” Tabotabo added.

She also noted the 10 per cent increase of TB cases here in the region wherein Cebu province has the biggest number of TB patients, seconded by the province of Bohol, third is Negros Oriental, fourth is Cebu City, and fifth is Lapulapu city.

Tabotabo, who is in her 11th year of servicing the DOH TB Department, said that during her earlier years in the field she noticed that TB cases were usually found in people who were on their 30 up to 50 years of age.

But later on, TB cases were found in persons aged 15, and this present time,”even one year old are already contaminated with this kind of lung disease,” she said.

This is because some people are no longer hiding but came to the open by consulting their problem in the nearest health center in their areas for free medicines.

Tabotabo also defines TB as a disease with two kinds, such as pulmonary and extra pulmonary.

The pulmonary TB affects solidly lungs, while the extra pulmonary are those which affects outside the lungs such as bones and other parts of the skeletal system of the individual.

She also said that with the public’s support, they are convinced that by 2020 the Central Visayas may be considered as a TB free area in the country.