How healthy is the state of our nation?

As we go to press Sunday, President Gloria Macapagal has yet to deliver her State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday, July 27. Though a day late (better late than never), we’re sharing this open letter with our readers:

Dear colleagues and friends,

Thoughts on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27 are in the air.  We are once again faced with whether to believe or to denounce claims of what the government has done versus the actual state of the nation.

 Last July 17, Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) and the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) for Health met to discuss how the government has scored when it comes to health, and more specifically on the use of the health budget.  (No time can ever be more apt than July 17 for this is when we commemorate the anniversary of the total banning of medical waste incinerators as stipulated in the Clean Air Act. A big victory for the health sector.)

 It is saddening and frightening to see that to date, several items remain unreleased in the appropriations made in the 2008 national budget for health.  Among which are the P100 million for the purchase of autoclave machines for infectious medical waste treatment, which will benefit 16 Department of Health hospitals in the provinces, the P400 million for the tuberculosis program and the P1.82 billion for family health.

 It is in this regard that we are circulating this petition to PGMA to be signed by as many concerned groups and individuals in the Philippines and outside the country. 

We are targeting more than a thousand signatures.  A thousand voices to push this much-needed action.

 Together, let us work for a just state of the nation.

 —Merci V. Ferrer

Executive director

Here are vital details of the petition:

• The P100 million for autoclaves is vital because it will enable our DOH hospitals to disinfect the infectious waste they dispose, making sure their waste is free from disease-causing pathogens.  Without the proper equipment to disinfect the waste that hospitals regularly dispose, people can potentially be exposed to pathogens (Influenza A H1N1 included) and get infected.

• The P400 million for the department’s TB program is intended for the treatment of 100,000 children with primary complex and 133,000 patients with multi-drug resistant TB.  This additional fund is needed especially to protect children of school age who might become carriers of infectious TB. If government treatment policy is to be limited in its reach, TB will never be successfully eradicated.

 • With the country’s high maternal mortality rate (MMR), among the highest in Asia, the release of the remaining P1.82 billion for family health is certainly critical. Despite efforts to reduce maternal deaths, many Filipino women still die during pregnancy or childbirth. For every 100,000 live births in the Philippines, 162 women die during pregnancy and childbirth or shortly after childbirth (2006 Family Planning Survey). Thus, the release of the remaining P1.82 billion is certainly critical if the government is serious in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of improving maternal health. –Ching M. Alano, Philippine Star