By Froilan Gallardo
Special Correspondent
TWENTY-THREE-year-old “Ben” (not his real name) thought that going abroad to work would help him support his family in Saguiaran town, Lanao del Sur.
He prepared his travel documents after a firm accepted him to work as a restaurant waiter in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates in February 2020.
After he completed all the requirements, Ben went to Manila where he was supposed to go the final medical checkup for his departure last year.
“My family had to borrow money to buy my plane tickets for Manila. We are not rich. I needed the job to support them,” Ben said.
“Ben” is one of the thousands of Marawi residents still struggling to survive the squalid conditions in the temporary shelters after the 2017 Marawi siege drove them away from their homes.
The medical findings sent the world crashing down on “Ben” who wanted to find work to support his parents and four siblings.
The clinical tests found Ben to have mild pulmonary Tuberculosis, a contagious, airborne infection that destroys human tissues.
The World Health Organization in its 2019 report said about 1 million Filipinos have TB disease.
It is the number one killer among all infectious diseases besides Covid-19.
The Department of Health said tuberculosis kills an average of 70 Filipinos a day despite being “a preventable and curable disease.”
In Lanao del Sur, the provincial health officials said there are 171 residents sick with tuberculosis and another 3,319 residents in 11 towns have early signs of the disease.
“Ben” went home dejected after the construction firm no longer wanted to accept his job application because of his medical condition.
Back in his hometown in Saguiran, “Ben” went to the municipal health office to seek treatment.
The municipal health office in Saguiaran town, Lanao del Sur had “Ben” x-rayed and was able to confirm that he was indeed sick with pulmonary tuberculosis.
“Ben” is now undergoing a daily treatment of anti-tuberculosis drugs that were made available for him free of charge.
Dr. Apasrah Macumbal-Mapupuno of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Health office said “Ben” is lucky that the municipal health office had the medicines to treat them.
Mapupuno said most of the budget in the province for treating tuberculosis has been diverted to combating the Covid-19.
“Treatment for tuberculosis has taken a back seat because of Covid-19,” she said.
Mapupuno said the Genexpert machine for tuberculosis molecular laboratory at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City was converted to testing for Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
“Most of the money for the early detection of tuberculosis and other diseases also ran out as the money went on to fight the coronavirus,” she said.
When the money ran out, Mapupuno said salaries for the drivers of motorcycles who collect the sputum tuberculosis samples from Lanao del Sur’s 39 municipalities were not paid.
She said they also ran out of anti-tuberculosis drugs for the TB patients, which were supposed to be readily available and given free of charge.
Treatment of tuberculosis involves taking antibiotics medicine for a minimum of six months. Drug-resistant TB, however, is a major concern because it no longer can be treated with previously effective drugs.
“For a year, we do not know what is the situation of TB infection in the province,” Mapupuno said.
She said they are especially concerned about the cramped houses where thousands of internally displaced persons like “Ben” are in temporary shelters around Marawi City.
The United Nations High Commissioner for refugees, in its May 2020 report said 120,000 IDPs are still displaced in temporary shelters that dotted the land around Marawi City.
The UNHCR report said the Covid-19 pandemic heightens the health risks of the IDPs and their communities because of limited access to health care.
Johayma Diama, project manager of the Maranao Development Center (Maradeca) Access TB program said the dire health situation in Lanao del Sur ended with the help of an international NGO.
Diama said they wanted to find out whether the tuberculosis cases in Lanao del Sur have increased or decreased.
“There were no available data with the provincial health office because they were focused on combating the Covid-19,” she said.
Diama said what they did first was to hire mobile X-ray clinics on trucks and deployed them to ten of Lanao del Sur’s 39 municipalities.
She said the people were surprised because this was not done before.
“Our tactic was to bring the x-ray clinics to the towns rather than ask the residents to come to Marawi,” Diama said.
Diama said the results were encouraging: some 6,000 residents availed themselves to mobile clinics and have themselves x-rayed.
She said 171 residents were suspected to have TB and these are mostly from ages 60 years old to 80 years old.
Of the 171 residents, Diama said 47 elderly Maranaos were tested positive for TB when their sputum was examined with the GenXpert machine for tuberculosis in Marawi.
Diama said they meet initial stiff resistance from some residents who fear that they would be stigmatized if found that they are sick with TB.
She said they resorted to asking the help of the town mayors in asking the residents to avail themselves of the x-ray clinics.
“The situation changed when the town mayors help in asking their residents. More people came to the clinics because their leaders asked them,” Diama said.
The data culled by Maradeca was incorporated into those with the Lanao del Sur provincial health office.
