ARMM health execs report sharp decline in TB cases

COTABATO CITY—Health officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao announced a drastic reduction in the number of cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the region, saying it came about even amid security threats to the region’s health workers.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding, ARMM health chief, said the campaign against TB had been successful in bringing down the number of TB cases by at least 60 percent. At least 4,275 cases of TB were reported in the region last year.

Sinolinding said the rate of success could have been higher had health workers in the region not been confronted with security risks.

Several health workers in ARMM had been either abducted or killed in recent years.

“Our health providers now consider their own safety in the campaign against TB in far-flung and conflict-affected communities in the region,” said Sinolinding.

Aside from security threats, health workers are also grappling with the challenges of fighting a new strain of TB, which is drug-resistant. It is called MDR, or multidrug resistant, TB.

Dr. Sadaila Raki-in, regional TB coordinator, said health workers had been constantly reminding patients to take medicines regularly. Edwin Fernandez and Charlie Señase, Inquirer Mindanao