Province of Romblon - UNDP in the Philippines

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and logistics support to local governments
to combat these diseases. The LGUs on the
other hand implement these programs and
try to contain cases and provide curative
treatment. The RHUs conduct sputum and/
or x-ray tests and provide treatment to those
with positive results.
C. Challenges
Although tuberculosis is now a curable
disease, it is sad to note that there are
still plenty of cases of death associated
with the disease. One major hindrance in
fully implementing the tuberculosis control
program is the attitude of the people
themselves, particularly those in remote
barangays, of ignoring the symptoms
associated with tuberculosis. Unless the
patient actually coughs blood, most people
showing symptoms of the disease do not
seek consultation and just go on with their
daily lives, as if everything is fine. Hence, if
the disease is already at its worst stage with
complications, even if they seek treatment at
LGU Health Scorecard
With the implementation of the PIPH, there
is a massive information campaign on improving
health statistics through LGU scorecards
that shows each municipality’s past and current
standing on program implementation. Th is encourages
those that do not fare well to improve
their standing by closely scrutinizing the causes
and reasons for such lower accomplishments and
exploring ways to improve them. RHUs are also
encouraged to seek accreditation to be a Tuberculosis
Directly Observed Treatment Scheme
(TB DOTS) center to better provide rehabilitative
intervention to patients with tuberculosis.
Province of Romblon
this stage, it is already too late. At this point,
sometimes death is inevitable because the
body’s resistance is already gone. The
“bahala na” (come what may) attitude that
consigns their fate to God sometime hinders
the immediate provision of treatment that
can prevent loss of life. This is one of the
tough challenges for the LGUs and the
province to surmount, and to effectively
provide the necessary intervention to those
in need of medical attention.
Another challenge relative to the issue
is how to encourage the people to submit
themselves for sputum test. People in
remote areas tend to be unaware of the
varied health services provided by the
government. Likewise, poverty also played
a major role in their choice of not availing
the services as they really have to spend
money for transportation expenses and
minimal amount for the sputum test. These
reasons discourage the really poor people
to seek medical intervention even if they
suspect that they are ill.
Status Report on the Millennium Development Goals Using CBMS Data