Tuberculosis cases in the Philippines are rebounding after years of decline, with multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains on the rise—a trend the country’s top health insurer attributes largely to patients failing to complete their treatment despite medicines being provided for free, its president and chief executive officer warned Saturday.
PhilHealth President and CEO Dr. Edwin Mercado raised the alarm in an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday on June 13, saying a 2022 study confirmed a rebound in TB cases after a period of decline, with the emergence of multiple drug-resistant TB and XDR-TB—strains that no longer respond to standard medicines—posing a particularly serious public health threat.
“Ang nakakatakot pa rito, dumadami ang tinatawag na multiple drug-resistant TB at XDR, o iyong talagang kahit ordinaryong gamot ay hindi tumatalab. Senyales din iyon ng minsan ay under-treatment, dahil hindi tinatapos ng ating mga pasyente. Libre na nga eh, bakit hindi tapusin?” Mercado said.
Mercado said basic TB medicines are covered by PhilHealth for non-resistant cases, while the Department of Health handles drug-resistant TB cases, which require specialized testing to determine which drugs will be effective against the specific strain involved.
He said the TB rebound underscores the critical importance of community health workers and barangay-level engagement, with front-line workers needed to go house-to-house to ensure patients complete their treatment—a function that cannot be performed by clinics or hospitals alone.
“Kaya napaka-importante nga ng primary care, at kailangan ma-engage din ang mga barangay o community health workers na talagang lumilibot bahay-bahay para tiyakin na nakakakumpleto ang ating mga pasyente,” Mercado said.
Mercado said both TB and HIV are part of what he described as the Philippines’ “triple burden of disease”—infectious diseases that persist alongside rising lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer, compounded by mental health issues and accident-related injuries driven by rapid urbanization.
He said PhilHealth is counting on the expansion of its YAKAP primary care network, now at 4,376 clinics nationwide, to serve as the frontline defense against communicable diseases like TB and HIV by catching cases earlier and ensuring treatment continuity at the community level.
Former Senator Orly Mercado, who joined the interview as a studio guest, said the TB problem should by now be a matter of history given that medicines are freely available, and called for a messaging campaign that could go viral to drive treatment completion among patients.
“Libre na ang gamot, dapat ang TB history na lang iyon, hindi ba?” Sen. Mercado said.
