Publish Date : 28-May-2019
The House Committee on Appropriations chaired by Rep. Rolando Andaya, Jr. (1st District, Camarines Sur) approved a substitute bill which seeks to strengthen the fight to end tuberculosis. In a meeting presided by committee vice chairperson Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora (1st District, Compostela Valley), the panel approved the unnumbered substitute bill to HB 8615 which seeks to amend for the purpose Republic Act No. 10767 or the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Plan Act.
Rep. Angelina Tan (4th District, Quezon), principal author of the bill, said there is a compelling need to strengthen the fight to eliminate TB in light of the recent approval of the Political Declaration on the Fight Against Tuberculosis (TB) which was endorsed at the United Nations (UN) High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB by the heads of state and government and their representatives.
The UN HLM on TB on 26 September 2018 in New York with the theme United To End Tuberculosis: An Urgent Response To A Global Epidemic is a tremendous and unprecedented step forwarded by governments and all partners engaged in the fight against TB, she said.
Tan further said the Philippines as one of the high burden TB countries is a signatory to the Political Declaration on the Fight Against Tuberculosis. She said the Philippines has the fourth highest burden of TB in the world after India, China and Indonesia. The substitute bill mandates the Chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), in coordination with the Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH), to work for the inclusion on modules on the principles and practices of preventing, detecting, managing and controlling TB in the health curriculum of every public and private elementary and high school.
It tasks the Director-General of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), in coordination with the Secretary of the DOH, to encourage local media outlets to launch a massive, nationwide, consistent and sustained media campaign on TB control, treatment and management, using all forms of multimedia and other electronic means of communication.
The proposal imposes the penalty of a fine of P50,000 to P100,000 or imprisonment of one month to six months, or both, at the discretion of the court, on violators of the No Prescription, No Anti- TB Drugs policy as provided under RA 10767.
Stating that adult and childhood TB shall be considered as a notifiable disease in all levels of the health care system, the bill provides that any hospital or clinic which diagnosed a patient with TB shall report the same to the DOH. The bill requires the organization of a TB notification committee in all public and private health centers, hospitals and facilities whose members shall be determined by the Secretary of Health.
TB notification committees shall submit regular TB notification compliance reports to their respective DOH Regional Coordinating Committees which shall make a consolidated TB notification compliance reports to the DOH National Coordinating Committee. The bill directs the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to expand its team package for TB patients to include new, relapse and return-after-default cases, extension of treatment, including TB screening, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB), in both adults and children.
The substitute bill contains provisions that grant persons with TB rights and responsibilities which include among others, the right to 1) be treated humanely, 2) free and equitable access to TB care from diagnosis to completion of treatment, 3) job security after diagnosis or appropriate rehabilitation and upon completion of treatment, and 4) receive medical advice and treatment that meets international standards for TB care, centering on patient needs, including those patients with XDR, MDR-TB or TB-HIV coinfection, and preventive treatment for young children and others considered to be at high risk.
TB screening shall be mandatory for high-risk population which may include persons who are in close contact with persons known or suspected to have TB; those infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS; those who are smokers of cigarettes and illegal drugs; healthcare workers who serve high-risk clients; and those who inject illicit drugs or users of other locally identified high-risk substance.
The amount necessary to carry out the provisions of the Act shall be charged against the current year appropriations of the concerned government agencies. Consistent with the countrys commitment to ensure sufficient and sustainable financial support to end the TB epidemic, particularly in the development of a national strategic program to locate and treat over two million Filipinos inflicted with TB in the next five years, an amount to be determined by the DOH, in consultation with the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Budget and Management, shall be include in the annual appropriation of the DOH. Provided, that the administrative expenses to implement the program shall be one percent of the program costs. Staff complement shall be increased to effectively carry out the functions of the TB elimination program. The DOH shall submit the staffing pattern to the DBM for approval.
The bill provides for the creation of a Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Elimination of TB (JCOC-ETB) to conduct a regular review of the implementation of the Act. The Joint Congressional Oversight Committee shall be composed of five members from the Senate and five members from the House of Representatives to be appointed by the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Joint Congressional Oversight Committee shall be jointly chaired by the Chairpersons of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography and the House of Representatives Committee on Health.
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