Skip to main content

Ilocos Norte guns for TB-free province

By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter

The Ilocos Norte Provincial Health Office (PHO) is gunning for Tuberculosis-free province. 

In view of its continuing campaign to educate local communities about this highly communicable disease, Lerissa Foronda, health education and promotion officer said a fun run was conducted on March 24 to drumbeat awareness about this airborne disease and how to prevent its spread by coughs and sneezing.

“Tuberculosis (TB) is not hereditary but it is a highly communicable infectious disease affecting all ages,” said Foronda as she reported about a series of information drives to identify patients suspected of carrying this disease. 

Tuberculosis is an airborne infectious disease. The majority of TB deaths occur in developing countries. The disease is closely linked to substandard housing and poor nutrition.

The Philippines is ninth in the world on tuberculosis with approximately 390,000 Filipinos having the disease and 75 people dying from it daily.

According to Foronda, most of the cases in the province are found in urban areas such as in Laoag City and Batac City. 

“Apparently, this is because of the close proximity and thick population in the area,” she said.  

She also urged local residents here to have their free check-up and to avail free medication in their nearest rural health units and hospitals for six straight months as TB is a curable disease.


In support of the Department of Health campaign and for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce TB prevalence and mortality by half by 2015, the PHO aims to zero in cases of TB the soonest possible time by ensuring the success rate of treatment of patients by 90 percent and strengthening efforts of case detection.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become an annua

PIDS expert says income tax cuts justified; warns gov’t of revenue loss

Proposals to amend the personal income tax schedule appear to be well-justified. However, these proposals should include measures that will allow government to recover the revenue loss from lower income taxes. Dr. Rosario Manasan, senior research fellow of state think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said at a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Senate, that government should look for new revenue measures to compensate for the projected revenue loss that will arise as a result of the implementation of any of the various proposals to restructure the personal income tax. Currently, there are several income tax reform proposals pending in both houses of Congress. All of them, according to Dr. Manasan, have the same objective of addressing the phenomenon of bracket creep, which results from “non-indexation to inflation of personal income tax brackets”. Simply put, bracket creep occurs when employees’ income increases over time as a result of inflation. Th

PGIN honors Ilocano heroes of past, present through Heroes Walk

SPO1 Allan Lampitoc Franco of Banna, Ilocos Norte and PO2 Jovalyn D. Lozano of Adams, Ilocos Norte receive a resolution of commendation, a certificate of college scholarship grant to their family members and a P20,000 cash incentive each from the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte represented by Governor Imee R. Marcos and Vice Governor Angelo M. Barba in recognition of their bravery and heroic acts in the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao on January 25. Mr. Franco and Mr. Lozano were recognized on March 10 in time for the unveiling of the second batch of Ilocano heroes at the Heroes Walk located along the Sirib Mile in Laoag City.  (Lei Adriano) By Jennifer T. Pambid PGIN-CMO In honor of the heroes who brought freedom, fame and glory to the province as well as to the country in the past century, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) through the Education Department and Sirib Youth Office launched the second batch of Ilocano Heroes Walk on March 10, 2015.