Nationwide Delays in TB Drug Delivery in Philippines Prompt Local Programs To Purchase Drugs

The Philippines' Department of Health has not distributed tuberculosis drugs under its National TB Control Program since July 2008, prompting some local governments to use their own funds to procure medicines to control the disease, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports. The national TB program has a budget of 400 million Philippine pesos, or about $8.5 million, but the office has not succeeded in obtaining a release of the funds from the Department of Budget and Management, according to an unnamed source at the health department.

Rio Magpantay, health department director for the Central Luzon region, said his office in the past received 26 million Philippine pesos, or about $551,000, worth of TB drugs annually to support more than 7,000 patients. However, the delay in receiving medicines has led the regional office to purchase medicines independently in anticipation of reimbursement from the national office. Magpantay added that other regions have experienced similar delays or absences in TB drug delivery. Tarlac City, which served as a pilot for the TB program, has not received drugs from the health department since November 2007, according to Mayor Genaro Mendoza. Mendoza added that the city government purchased TB drugs worth six million Philippine pesos, or about $127,000, to keep 700 people on TB treatment after the city did not receive its July 2008 supply of medicines. Mendoza said that it seemed as if the city's local TB program "is being ignored," adding, "If the DOH is not consistent in this program, we will never achieve our TB eradication target by 2010." According to an unnamed TB control program director, the health department is "aware of the problem and actions have been taken," and "[i]nitial delivery of drugs has been done" (Orejas, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1/22).