BONTOC, Mountain Province – Another successful health event was, once again, planned and conducted by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology-Cordillera Administrative Region (BJMP-CAR) in coordination with the Provincial Health Office after a total of 90 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) gathered for tuberculosis (TB) screening during a TB Health Caravan held on 7 October at the BJMP compound in Bontoc.
During the event, the TB screening team from BJMP-CAR and Provincial Health Office (PHO) conducted an information, education and campaign on TB to the PDLs while waiting for their chest x-ray result and while waiting for their sputum to be collected for GeneXpert.
According to National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP) Coordinator Merle A. Bangilan, an effective NTP implementation includes successful TB control in jails as this could be beneficial for the community at large.
“Late diagnosis, inadequate treatment, overcrowding, poor ventilation, and repeated prison transfer can encourage transmission of TB infection. Hence, an effective case finding will lead to the control of disease transmission which will eventually result to a decrease in TB prevalence in our community,” she added.
Out of the 90 PDLs who were tested for TB, 1 chest X-ray result showed ‘With presumptive TB’ while 8 were subjected for sputum collection for GeneXpert.
Meanwhile, according to Provincial Health Officer Dr. Annie Claire B. Pekas, the TB Health Caravan aims to intensify the TB case finding in the province as part of the DOH’s goal in reducing and controlling TB cases in the country under its NTP program.
It could be recalled that a series of TB case finding activities are being conducted around the province through the collaborative efforts of the provincial government through the PHO and the Cordillera office of the Department of Health-Center for Health Development.
In this month’s PHO staff meeting, Pekas said that conduct of TB Caravan in the province will continue to be active.
She is also hopeful that a mobile chest X-ray machine will be available in time for an upcoming TB Caravan in the municipality of Sadanga and another in the municipality of Bontoc before the end of this year. //icus
