The government campaign to minimize, if not eradicate, tuberculosis in adults, was expanded to children, at the launching of the TB-DOTS in partnership with the Silliman University Medical Center Foundation Inc. Monday.
Department of Health regional director, Asuncion Anden, said TB control and management is part of the Millennium Development Goals that the country is targeting to achieve by 2015.
She said the DOH has allotted P29 million for Region 7, with P3.6 million for Negros Oriental, to purchase medicines for the full six-month medication of children diagnosed with TB, and for diagnostic services, like the training of local health workers, both in government and the private sector.
The funds will also be used for the construction of TB-DOTS facilities in rural areas and in private hospitals, she added.
TB-DOTS Center coordinator, Lourdes Ursos, said they have recorded sporadic referrals of at least 20 patients with TB in the past seven years in the province.
Ursos said she believes that children in the household of these patients are the most vulnerable to the disease since transmission is airborne.*JG
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