Copyright 2003 BusinessWorld Publishing Corporation
BusinessWorld
March 21, 2003, Friday

SECTION: Pg. 29
LENGTH: 478 words

HEADLINE: WEEKENDER: LABOR & MANAGEMENT;
Kiss killer TB goodbye

BYLINE: Carina I. Roncesvalles

BODY:
As the government and the private sector beef up their program to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in the work- place, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECoP) said the killer disease would soon be history.

ECoP said various government agencies and business groups have completed a comprehensive and unified policy for TB control, embodied in the executive order set to be issued by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in time for World TB Day on March 24.

"An executive order is in the works which outlines the framework and guidelines to deal with tuberculosis in the workplace and in the country," ECoP said, noting tuberculosis has claimed thousands of lives and has wiped off billions of possible earnings.

A recent study showed the disease has killed about 51,000 Filipinos in 2000 and wiped off P8 billion in potential wage incomes and benefits annually.

TB is a contagious, potentially fatal infection caused by airborne bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease may be acquired through either coughing or other personal contact.

The introduction of antibiotics and advance technologies in detecting the disease effected the decline in TB cases which used to be a leading killer.

ECoP said the policy has five components: national TB program (NTP), guidelines in government agencies, guidelines for private physicians and nongovernmental organizations, revised TB policies of the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Employees' Compensation Com-mission (ECC) and new TB package of Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

The policies and guidelines were fine-tuned by the departments of Health, Labor and Employment, Interior and Local Government, Education, National Defense, Justice, Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Social Welfare and Development and Science and Technology and the National Economic and Development Authority.

ECoP, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, National Commission for Indigenous Peoples, SSS, GSIS, ECC, Philippine Medical Association, Association of Health Maintenance Organizations of the Philippines, Occupational Safety and Health Center and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration also contributed in crafting the implementation guidelines of the program.

Last week, the Health department required doctors to use sputum microscopy to identify tuberculosis faster. The technology measures how infectious the disease is by phlegm examination.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said sputum microscopy is also a cheaper way to detect tuberculosis. It costs P20 as against P200 for chest X-ray.

In last year's visit of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the country, he proposed that the Philippines be the nucleus of the TB prevention program under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Information and Human Network for Infectious Disease Control.