Issue No. 67 - November to December 2011 - DOH

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Nurses Kaycie, Allen, Avy and K-anne, RNheals Batch 1 assigned in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro. Photo byDr. Chen del Mundo, grabbed from his blog .worth at least P2,000 for these nurses.However, after a few months ofservice for the RNheals program, the nursesaired their concern about not receiving theirstipends. In May, the DOH apologized for thedelay and assured the nurses that it has fasttrackedthe requirements necessary for therelease of funds earmarked for the programas well as guaranteed them that for thesucceeding months they would be paid ontime.In September, Health SecretaryEnrique T. Ona issued a memorandumorder directed to all DOH hospitals to stopall volunteer training programs for nurses.He pointed out that the current practice ofregistered nurses “volunteering” in hospitalsis not consistent with the provisions of law.Ona stressed, “Many hospitals haveimplemented ‘nurse volunteerism’ in theguise of ‘training programs’ in order to justifythe collection of ‘training fees,’ whereby suchbasic skills training put no added value tothe professional career of the nurses.”According to the Republic Act 9418or the Volunteer Act of 2007, “volunteerism”as an act involving a wide range of activities,40 HEALTHbeat I November - December 2011including traditional forms of mutual aid anddevelopment interventions that provides anenabling and empowering environment4 Dengue Surge in LuzonWhen dengue cases peaked inJuly and August in Luzon and a number ofchildren died, one angle that some mediapeople in news and commentary hyped wasthe inaction of government in what they sawas a crisis. For the Department of Health, thiswas uncalled for and very much unjustified.For more than a decade thatdengue mosquitoes have been attacking thecountry, the DOH has already institutionalizedits dengue prevention and control programin public health and hospital services as wellas in health promotion. But as the alreadya-clichégoes, “the government cannot doit alone.” In dengue prevention and control,communities and the whole society shoulddo their big part.Since the first day of June, the DOHhas alerted the country that it was Dengueboth on the part of the beneficiaryreceiving, and the volunteer rendering theact, undertaken for reasons arising fromsocial-developmental, business or corporateorientation, commitment or conviction forthe attainment of the public good and wheremonetary and other incentives or reward areNOT the primary motivating factors.Instead of “forced volunteerism,”Ona wanted the DOH by itself or inconjunction with the Board of Nursing tocraft a residency program for nurses. Underthe proposal, the government-fundedresidency program will give nurses 6-18months of training in a public or privatelyownedhospital. He said this includes all DOHregional medical centers.By October, the DOH and itspartners started the recruitment andeventual deployment of RNheals batch 2nurses.Prevention Month. Although dengue is nolonger a seasonal disease, epidemiologicdata in previous years still show that theonset of the rainy season cause the diseaseto rise. On June 15, it was not only thePhilippines that conducted a massive antidenguecampaign, but the whole ASEAN(Association of Southeast Asian Nations)as well. ASEAN Dengue Day was declaredthis year and would be observed every yearthereafter to foster more awareness aboutthe disease. This year’s observance has forits theme, “Dengue is everybody’s concern,causing socio-economic burden, but it ispreventable.”On this day, the DOH urged topofficials and leaders of the country’s publicschools, churches, public markets, andcommunities to conduct search and destroy
activities in their areas of jurisdiction toprevent dengue. Barangay officials, throughthe Liga Ng Mga Barangay, were also urgedto seriously undertake government’s antidenguecampaign by allocating a part of itsbudget for dengue prevention and control.At the launch ceremonies held in KalookanCity, Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona said,“Dengue is everybody’s concern, but withour concerted efforts, dengue can becontrolled starting today.”And then it happened. Towardsthe end of July, a sudden increase of denguecases happened in Metro Manila, CentralLuzon and the Ilocos region. The nation,as what was being reported in media, wasalarmed when a surge of about 2,000 newcases occurred in the first two weeks ofAugust. This incident prompted officials todeclare health emergencies in a number ofareas in Metro Manila and affected areas ofthe country.Even with the Department ofHealth’s assurance that the total number ofcases nationwide is lower than that of lastyear, the DOH National Epidemiology Centerreported dengue cases at the NationalCapital Region, Region 1 and 2 nearlydouble, with 10,487 cases recorded in thefirst seven months of 2011 compared to5,416 in the same period last year.An off-the-cuff remark of areporter in a DOH press conference of havinga “Ilocano strain” of dengue went haywire inthe news and even attributed Secretary Onafor it.This sudden rise in cases causedpressure and panic among public healthfacilities in Metro Manila, especially at theQuirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC),where it was shown on television numerousaffected patients sharing beds, hallwayswere converted to wards, and temporarywards were made outside the hospitalpremises to house dengue patients, mostof were children aged 0-15 years. Addingmisery to QMMC at this time was the factthat the nearby government and privatehospitals were partially closed due todamages caused by the recent floods.On August 25, the DOH togetherwith the Departments of the Interiorand Local Government, Science andTechnology, Education, Environmental andNational Resources, and the Metro ManilaDevelopment Authority launched a newcampaign against dengue dubbed, “AksyonBarangay Kontra Dengue” (or ABaKaDa), inan effort to stir up community action thatwill be sustainable, target-driven and thatcan be adopted by LGUs with perennialthreats of a dengue epidemic.ABaKaDa seeks to reinforce thecountry’s drive against dengue by going backto the basics of comprehensive vector controlsupported by environmental manipulationand modification. ABaKaDa calls for regularweekly clean-up drives spearheaded by thebarangay leaders and includes the activeparticipation of community volunteers, civilsociety and others in government.Lessons from past dengueepidemics showed that communitiesdetermine the dengue burden dependingon their seriousness and commitmentto eliminate mosquito breeding sites.Specifically, the campaign urges families,barangay leaders and youth councils(Sangguniang Kabataan) to do communityclean-up drives and to aggressively seek andclean out possible mosquito breeding sitesevery week especially in areas that continueto experience clustering of dengue cases.At about the same time, theDOH and PhilHealth (Philippine HealthInsurance Corporation) introduced andbegan implementing effective September1, the new case rate payment scheme,where members would be able to predicthow much PhilHealth would be paying forthe services provided. Included in the newcase rates is dengue, classified into Dengue1 (dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagicfever (DHF) Grades I and II) and Dengue II(DHF Grades III and IV) with reimbursementIn Quezon City, because of the high number of dengue cases, the DOH Center for Health Development- Metro Manila, conducted space spraying on mosquitoes and their breeding sites. Unlike traditionalfogging where chemical-based insect repellant is used, space spraying only involves the use of waterbasedinsect repellant. It produces a mist instead of a fog. (Photo by Glen Ramos)November - December 2011 I HEALTHbeat 41
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Issue No. 67 - November to December 2011 - DOH

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