The costs of treating all expected cases requires between PhP475–1625 million (approximately US$8–29 million) annually. Conclusion: The high burden of disease from TB
Tuberculosis
A contagious infection caused by bacteria that mainly affects the lungs but also can affect any other organ.
Full Answer
What is the economic cost of tuberculosis (TB) in the Philippines?
The costs of treating all expected cases requires between PhP475–1625 million (approximately US$8–29 million) annually. Conclusion: The high burden of disease from TB, large economic losses from mortality and morbidity from TB and the poor clinical outcomes all suggest that there is an urgent need for an increased investment in TB control.
What is the cost of TB treatment?
The cost of TB treatment depends on the country that a patient lives in. In most low and middle income countries the aim is to provide TB diagnosis and treatment free of charge within public health services. A number of pharmaceutical companies have special lower rates for their TB drugs in low and middle income countries.
What is the TB case detection rate in the Philippines?
In 2007, the Philippines achieved a TB case detection rate of 75 percent, exceeding the WHO target of 70 percent. The Directly Observed Therapy Short Course or DOTS is the internationally recommended strategy for TB control. DOTS simply means asking a relative or a health worker to directly observe the patient taking the anti-TB medicines daily.
Do you have latent tuberculosis in the Philippines?
Another alarming fact: An estimated 80 percent of Filipinos have latent TB. Because of the huge TB burden in the country, most of us already have the so-called “latent TB.” Yes, that in all likelihood means you and me.
Is TB treatment free in Philippines?
TB is curable and treatment is free in public health facilities nationwide.
How much is medicine for tuberculosis in the Philippines?
For drug- susceptible TB (DSTB) or the type of TB that can be treated by first line drugs, treatment for an adult may cost PhP 2,300 for six months. For the more potent type called drugresistant TB (DRTB), treatment cost ranges between PhP 35,000 to 600,000, depending on the treatment regimen.
How much is the cost of TB medicine?
In the United States the average cost of treating and managing a TB case was $34,600 in 2015. The average cost of treating a case of MDR TB was given as $110,900. Another paper gave the cost of treating a patient with MDR TB as $53,300 and $164,000 for a patient with XDR TB.
How much is the TB test in Philippines?
Test fees The fee for tuberculosis screening in the Philippines is 3600 Philippine peso. You will pay the clinic directly for the cost of your tuberculosis test. The cost of the test is in addition to the visa application fee. The test fee does not cover treatment if you have tuberculosis.
How much does PhilHealth cover for TB?
Health members afflicted with Tuberculosis (TB), the Phi! Health Board approved Resolution Nos. 485 and 490 of 2002 wbich established the case rate benefit for out- patient TB-DOTS package amounting to 4,000 pesos for "consultation, anti-tuberculosis medicines and necessary diagnostic services".
Does PhilHealth cover tuberculosis?
WITH the rising number of tuberculosis cases noted in the country, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) today reminded members that treatment for pediatric and adult tuberculosis is covered through its outpatient Directly-Observed Treatment Short-course DOTS) Package.
Is TB treatment expensive?
The overall estimated total costs incurred right from the onset of symptoms until treatment completion was found to be Rs. 3211 (3.8% of annual family income) under DOTS program, which is less compared to previous studies. The overall mean total cost was significantly high among male (Rs. 3270; ), employed (Rs.
Are TB medications expensive?
Medication costs for MDR TB were found in three studies, with a range of $11,600 to $62,600 and average of $30,400. The sum of the average cost components for treatment and case management was $34,600 per patient for drug-susceptible TB and $110,900 for MDR TB.
Are TB meds expensive?
A full 20-month treatment course for one person through GDF can cost between $8,000 and $12,000, depending on the length of treatment and the other drugs in the treatment regimen. The high price keeps treatment from being scaled up as needed.
How can I get free TB medicine?
Free treatment services are available for TB at all Government hospitals, Community Health Centers (CHC), Primary Health Centers (PHCs). DOT centers have been established near to residence of patients to the extent possible. All public heatlh facilties, subs centres, Community Volunteers, ASHA, Women Self Groups etc.
How do they test for TB in the Philippines?
The best way to get tested for pulmonary TB is by getting the sputum examined. The TB-causing germs can be seen through a microscope. At least two samples of sputum should be examined for accurate diagnosis.
What is TB DOTS program in the Philippines?
The Lung Center of the Philippines TB DOTS Clinic caters to adult afflicted with TB since early 2000 and children with TB in 2007. It is the first public health facility engaged in implementing Programmatic Management for Drug resistant TB in 2005 as a satellite treatment center under the Green Light Committee.
About the Philippines
The Philippines is an island nation in the heart of Southeast Asia. It extends from the south of China to the northern tip of Borneo. It is also known as the ‘Pearl of the Orient Seas’, the Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands. It comprises three main island groups, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Popular Parts of Philippines
The Philippines has a total land area of 116,000 square miles, with a large population of 107,791,044 million people. It has many pristine beaches, mountains, rainforests, islands, heritage towns, and monuments, With hotels, food, and transportation very affordable, it’s also a good budget tourism destination.
Weather and Climate in the Philippines
The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate. The general weather is hot and very humid. It experiences only three seasons:
Getting Around in the Philippines
The Philippines being an island nation, most international travelers reach the country by air. The country has many international airports in various cities including Cebu, Davao, Manila, Kalibo, and Angeles.
Tourist Visas in the Philippines
Travelers from more than 150 countries that have diplomatic relations with the Philippines can enter the country without a tourist visa. EU, Australia, Japan, and the US are a few visa-exempt countries. In general, you can stay for up to 30 days, provided your passport is valid for at least six months after your arrival.
Additional Information
Philippine Peso or Piso (PHP) is the official currency of the Philippines. Its subdivision is 100 centavos or centimos for a Peso. The current exchange rate for one US dollar is 51.99 PHP. You will be able to use US Dollars in Metro Manila and possibly in Cebu city. In other areas, it’s better to have Peso for exchange.
How many people died from stroke in the Philippines in 2018?
According to the WHO, as of 2018, stroke is the second cause of death in the Philippines with a recorded 63,621 deaths. It arises when a blood clot gets stuck in the arteries of the brain, stopping the supply blood and oxygen. The absence of both kills brain cells and damages the brain’s tissues.
When did the government remove VAT from medicine?
With this, under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Act, our government removed Value Added Tax (VAT) in medicines for such disease last January 2019. It enables underprivileged to avail and lessen the complications.
What are the leading causes of death in the Philippines?
Leading causes of death in the Philippines. 1. Heart diseases. These include conditions such as such as deformities, irregular heartbeat, deteriorating coronary arteries, heart failures, and the likes are the top cause of death worldwide. Early detection, medication or surgery is strongly advised by doctors.
Is it bad to get sick in the Philippines?
A 2019 research conducted by Philcare, a local health maintenance organization (HMO) provider, concluded that the cost of getting sick in the Philippines is unbearable to most Filipinos. Their Philippines Wellness Index data revealed that 37 percent max out their savings while 25 percent rely on their relatives to settle hospital bills.
Is healthcare the second most expensive in Southeast Asia?
Also, a study conducted in July 2019 by Mercer Marsh Benefits, a foreign consultancy specializing in vast healthcare services for employees, discovered that our country is the second most expensive in Southeast Asia when it comes to medical charges.
How much does it cost to treat TB?
In the United States the average cost of treating and managing a TB case was $34,600 in 2015. The average cost of treating a case of MDR TB was given as $110,900. 3A systematic synthesis of direct costs to treat and manage tuberculosis disease applied to California, 2015, BMC Research Notes, 2017; 10:434 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5577675/ Another paper gave the cost of treating a patient with MDR TB as $53,300 and $164,000 for a patient with XDR TB. This was just for the direct costs. 4Treatment Practices, Outcomes, and Costs of Multidrug-Resistant and Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, United States, 2005-2007, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 20, Number 5 - May 2014, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/5/13-1037_article
Do people with TB need to eat?
Many patients with TB are counselled that they should have a healthy diet. In low and middle income countries this may be particularly difficult with patients struggling to get enough food to eat. There is more about TB & Food.
Is TB free in South Africa?
In South Africa both the diagnosis and treatment of drug sensitive and drug resistant TB is free for the patient. However, patients incur substantial costs accessing health services, with the poorest patients incurring the highest costs.
Do you have to pay for TB treatment?
So usually the patient will not have to pay for the direct costs of their TB treatment. Treatment for drug resistant TB is usually only available from a government approved centre.
Is TB treatment free in India?
Many people believe that TB treatment in India is only free if the drugs are obtained from an NTEP government health centre. But with the aim of eliminating TB in India, the government has arranged for private practioners to be paid for the TB treatment that they provide. So usually the patient will not have to pay for the direct costs ...
What is TB in the Philippines?
Tuberculosis in the Philippines: 10 things you should know. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection caused by bacteria that usually affect the lungs. These bacteria, called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, can be passed on to another person through tiny droplets spread by coughing and sneezing. Even the accidental spread of saliva through laughing, singing, ...
How many people die from TB in the Philippines?
Even the accidental spread of saliva through laughing, singing, and spitting can pass on the TB bacteria. In the Philippines, TB is the number six leading cause of death, with 73 Filipinos dying every day of TB. Let us look at 10 facts about TB: 1. An estimated 200,000 to 600,000 Filipinos have active TB.
How many Filipinos have TB?
An estimated 200,000 to 600,000 Filipinos have active TB. This condition makes the person sick and contagious to others. Active TB can occur in the first few weeks after infection with the bacteria, or it can occur a few years later.
Why is MDR-TB a superbug?
This new “superbug” probably arose because TB patients did not adhere to their drug regimen, which means that they didn’t take their medicines religiously for the usual six months.
How long does it take to get tested for TB?
The usual treatment course for TB is between six and nine months of continuous medicines.
Which country has the highest burden of tuberculosis?
Out of 196 countries, the Philippines has the distinction of being included in the top 22 high-burden tuberculosis countries in the world. This report is according to the World Health Organizations (WHO), which ranks the Philippines at number nine worldwide. Together, these 22 countries (including the Philippines) contribute 80 percent ...
Do Filipinos have TB?
Another alarming fact: An estimated 80 percent of Filipinos have latent TB. Because of the huge TB burden in the country, most of us already have the so-called “latent TB.”. Yes, that in all likelihood means you and me.
How many people died from TB in 2014 in the Philippines?
In 2014, there were 290,000 new cases of TB reported in the Philippines, on top of the 410,000 people already living with the active disease, and 10,000 deaths from TB related infections. While the amount of newly infected is slowly declining, there has been a significant decrease in deaths from tuberculosis in the Philippines, ...
How long does it take to get TB results?
A healthcare worker typically reviews 10 to 15 TB sputum slides per week, and the results are available in seven days. The best prevention of TB is early detection.
When did bedaquiline come out?
Fortunately, a new medicine to treat this specific strain has been developed, with the partnership of USAID and Janssen Therapeutic, this treatment, bedaquiline, has been available in the Philippines since the beginning of June, 2016.
Is TB a problem in the Philippines?
One factor impeding the eradication of tuberculosis in the Philippines has to do with the infection itself. TB is not always detected by the screening process, and the bacteria continues to mutate making treatments that were once effective ineffective, referred to as multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). More than 11,000 Filipino’s suffer from this form of TB, which causes long-term side effects, and is much more expensive to treat.
Abstract
Objective: To provide a multidisciplinary and comprehensive analysis on the impact of tuberculosis (TB) in a high incidence country.
Introduction
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It kills more than 2 million people per year, making it the single leading microbial killer of adults ( Frieden et al. 2003 ). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of the world's population is infected with M. tuberculosis.
Methods
Project team members had expertise in TB in the Philippines, fieldwork, and epidemiologic and econometric analysis. The team identified all recent datasets related to TB in the Philippines ( Table 1) and reviewed them with respect to three initial eligibility criteria: completeness, accessibility and concurrence with other data.
Results
Over 500 000 years of healthy life (DALY) are lost due to illness (YLD) and premature mortality (YLL) from TB in the Philippines annually ( Table 2 ). Over two-thirds of this burden is due to premature mortality (YLL), reflecting TB deaths in the prime of life.
Discussion
TB control has received insufficient attention from policy-makers and health services researchers worldwide ( Nunn et al. 2002 ). The great tragedy of TB is that an effective system for TB control, the WHO DOTS strategy, has existed for almost a decade ( Kochi 1991 ).
Biographies
John W Peabody, MD, PhD, is Deputy Director of the Institute for Global Health and Professor, University of California at San Francisco, and formerly Co-Director of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Research Enhancement Award Program, San Francisco.
Author notes
1Institute for Global Health, University of California at San Francisco, 2San Francisco Veterans Affairs Research Enhancement Award Program, San Francisco, 3RAND, Santa Monica, 4School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA and 5University of the Philippines School of Economics, Quezon City, Philippines
How many people in the Philippines have TB?
About 1 million Filipinos have active TB disease. This is the third highest prevalence rate in the world, after South Africa and Lesotho. It is a highly curable disease. Yet, it is the number one killer among all infectious diseases. Every day more than 70 people lose their lives to TB in the Philippines needlessly.
Why do people with TB suffer?
For instance, about 100,000-150,000 people with TB suffer from catastrophic costs while seeking treatment in the public sector every year. The main reasons for that are loss of income, transport costs and nutritional supplements.
Is it time to end TB in the Philippines?
It’s time to end TB in the Philippines. This year’s World Tuberculosis (TB) Day theme is: “It’s time”. It is an urgent call for action to urge world leaders to keep the promises they made at the first-ever UN high-level meeting on TB in New York last September. During that meeting, Secretary of Health Dr Francisco Duque III had committed to ...
What is the treatment for TB?
Treatment of Latent Tuberculosis. The antimycobacterial rifapentine (Priftin), which was formerly approved for usage against active lung TB triggered by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has now been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for usage, in mix with isoniazid, in the treatment of hidden TB infection.
What is the empiric treatment for TB?
For initial empiric treatment of TB, start patients on a 4-drug program: isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and either ethambutol or streptomycin. When the TB isolate is understood to be completely susceptible, ethambutol (or streptomycin, if it is utilized as a fourth drug) can be stopped.
How long does rifapentine take to treat TB?
A newer routine for hidden TB is isoniazid 900 mg plus rifapentine 900 mg as soon as weekly for 12 weeks (administered as DOT). This combination was approved by the FDA in November 2014 for patients aged 2 years and older who are at high danger for developing active TB disease (consisting of those in close contact with active TB patients, patients who have actually had a recent conversion to a positive tuberculin skin test, HIV-infected patients, and those with lung fibrosis on radiograph).
What is IGRA in TB?
Patients with a scientifically substantial result on tuberculin skin testing or a positive interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) result ought to receive a course of therapy for latent TB, once active infection and disease are dismissed.
How long to seclude patients with TB?
Continue seclusion till sputum smears are unfavorable for 3 successive decisions (typically after approximately 2-4 weeks of treatment). Regrettably, these measures are neither possible nor practical in nations where TB is a public health problem.
How many drugs are needed for MDR TB?
Minimal information are available on programs for the treatment of patients exposed to MDR-TB. Nevertheless, if treatment is started, a minimum of 2 drugs must be given, and the index isolate must be vulnerable to all substance abuse.
How long does pyrazinamide last?
After 2 months of therapy (for a completely susceptible isolate), pyrazinamide can be stopped. Isoniazid plus rifampin are continued as day-to-day or intermittent treatment for 4 more months. If isolated isoniazid resistance is recorded, stop isoniazid and continue treatment with rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol for the whole 6 months.
