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Health & Family Health Family
Saturday-Friday | October 10 - 16, 2020
Majority of Filipinos find it risky to go to religious services, markets, work as pandemic persists: SWS MANILA (Mabuhay) — Majority of Filipinos find it "risky" to go to the market, attend religious services and go to their workplaces as the COVID-19 pandemic persists, according to an independent Social Weather Stations survey released Wednesday. Of 1,249 adult Filipinos surveyed nationwide, 79 percent said they consider it risky to their health and well-being to go the grocery store while 69 percent said it was risky to attend religious services, according to SWS. Some 65 percent of more than half of the respondents with a job during the Sep. 17 to 20 poll said they consider it risky to go to their place of work. Among them, the sentiment was greatest in Balance Luzon (57 percent), Metro Manila (52 percent), Mindanao (51 percent), and Visayas (43 percent). The number of Filipinos who find it risky to go the market was highest in Balance Luzon at 80 percent, followed by Metro Manila at 76 percent, Visayas at 75 percent, and Mindanao at 74 percent. The proportion of those who find it dangerous to attend religious services was highest in Visayas (76 percent), followed by Balance Luzon (70 percent), Metro Manila (69 percent), and Mindanao (62 percent). Government last month allowed 10 percent capacity for religious gatherings ahead of the holidays. The poll was conducted using mobile and computer-assisted telephone interviewing as community quarantine measures eased in most areas of the country. It had a sampling error margin of ±3 percent for national percentages. (MNS)
PH starts recruiting participants for Avigan trial MANILA (Mabuhay) — The Philippines will finally start enrolling patients for its clinical trial that aims to test whether the anti-flu drug Avigan is also effective against COVID-19. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday said that they are just waiting for the insurance documents to be finalized. “May minor na comment ang ating legal service for this insurance document (Our legal service has a minor comment for this insurance document),” she said during a virtual briefing, referring to insurance coverage of the participants “But we already gave the signal to our proponent, they are now going to start recruiting participants for the trial,” she added.
Vergeire said that once participants are recruited, the trial can officially start “hopefully by next week.” The Avigan or favipiravir trial was supposed to start back in August but unsigned documents and other requirements delayed it. As early as March, the Philippines requested Japan for access to the drug. It received the tablets in August. Last month, Fujifilm, the company that developed the drug said their clinical study showed reduced recovery times for COVID-19 patients. The trial is supposed to last for 9 months and will be conducted in 4 hospitals: Philippine General Hospital, Sta. Ana Hospital, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Quirino Memorial Medical Center. (MNS)
DOH: Universal Health Care law implementation a go regardless of PhilHealth status MANILA (Mabuhay) — The implementation of the Universal Health Care law is still a go regardless of the fate of the state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Friday. “Whether or not ma-privatize or public [pa rin] ang PhilHealth, hindi matitigil ang pagpapatupad ng UHC law,” Vergeire said in an online forum. The privatization, if not abolition of the state insurer was raised by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte after
PhilHealth officials were accused of anomalous disbursements of P15 billion worth of Internal Revenue Mechanism (IRM) fund to hospitals. Still, Vergeire said the controversy will not get in the way of UHC. “Wala pong sinabi na hindi na ito maipapatupad dahil lang nagre-restructure ang ibang ahensiya ng gobyerno,” she added. Likewise, the Health department also backed the inclusion of mental health expenses under the UHC law coverage. “We only have one health care
worker for 100,000 individuals. We want to change this, and we want to make quality mental health care services accessible,” Vergeire pointed out. “Kaya kaisa po kami ng W HO (World Health Organization) in pushing for highest standards of mental health care and well-being at maisama ang mental health [sa coverage ng] UHC,” she added. The proposed P4.5 trillion budget for 2021 has earmarked P71 billion for PhilHealth, largely for the implementation of UHC law. (MNS)
Feeding program for students to continue amid pandemic MANILA (Mabuhay) — The feeding program for children will continue despite blended learning approaches in schools amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, Malacañang said Thursday. In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said instead of preparing hot meals for students, nutritious food products
will be delivered to households or picked up by parents from schools. “Hinahatid po ng barangay sa mga malnourished na mga mag-aaral ang libreng at masustansiyang tanghalian sa kanilang mga bahay (The barangay will deliver them to the homes of malnourished students the free nutritious lunch right in their homes),” he said.
Last month, the Department of Education (DepEd) said there will be changes in the feeding program since learning will now be home-based. Due to the changes in the school calendar, DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the feeding period for this school year is reduced to 60 days for the regular component, which includes nutritious food products, and 50 days for the milk component. Classes for the school year 2020-2021 started on Oct. 5 after it was moved from its initial schedule of August 24. Blended learning strategies involve the use of TV and radio-based instruction, as well as modular and online learning. In June 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11037 or the Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act, which establishes a national feeding program for undernourished children in public daycare centers, kindergarten, and elementary school. Under the law, the government shall provide a supplemental feeding program for daycare children, a school-based feeding program for public school children from kinder to Grade 6, a milk-feeding program, a micronutrient feeding program, health examinations, vaccinations, and deworming among others. The law also includes the creation of a National Nutrition Information System which will harmonize all existing national and local nutrition databases to identify individuals, groups, and/ or localities that have the highest magnitude of hunger and undernutrition. (MNS)
