MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Magandang hapon, Malacañang Press Corps, and welcome to our press briefing ngayong araw, July 4th. Pinangunahan ni Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ang sectoral meeting kanina kung saan nagbigay ng updates ang Department of Health sa mga programang naipatupad nila alinsunod sa direktiba ng Pangulo.

DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa also discussed the agency’s 8-Point Action Agenda. And to give us more information on this, we are joined by DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa. Good afternoon, Secretary Herbosa.

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Good afternoon, Daphne. And good afternoon to the Malacañang Press Corps.

So basically, the things I’d like to discuss this afternoon: Number one, one of the directives of the President to me when he appointed me last month actually was to address the problem of TB.

The Philippines continues to be one of the top countries with the high burden of tuberculosis, and we’re like number 4 rank in the world. We were already down to number 9 but we actually increased again.

So I went around the Philippines looking at TB-DOTS centers. During my trips, every time I’d travel to a new destination, I’d visit the TB-Directly Observed Therapy Centers and find out what’s the problem or what are the situations. And they all unanimously said that there have been increasing cases during the time of COVID. And I was surprised because I thought TB would decrease because we were all masked during COVID. But unfortunately, people removed their mask; they masked outside, but when they went home, they were all unmasked, so one case of TB would actually infect the other household members, so there were increasing cases. Plus also, we had support from The Global Fund, if you remember the gene experts [that] were also used to actually detect COVID were actually brought to the Philippines through the Global Fund grant and implemented by our partners, the Philippine Social Business Progress [Philippine Business for Social Progress] and they actually brought that to many centers which detects multiple drug-resistant TB.

So our case finding had increased, so that’s normal. We will find new cases, but we also need to continue treatment for them. So the newest thing that we’ve actually going to implement for the next three months, for the next quarter, will be the shortening of the course to four months TB therapy with several drugs which used to be six to nine months, so it’s shortened for the regular TB, and then six months for those that are multiple drug-resistant.

We’ve also started to implement other things like artificial intelligence diagnosis with radiology. So these are things that can pick up the … through the X-ray, the computer already diagnoses the presence or absence of TB. So we’re improving our case detection and we are also improving our delivery.

We are also trying to implement a video-assisted directly observed therapy. Used to be, that if you had TB, you’d have to go to the center every day for months, and then the health worker watches you take the anti-TB meds to complete the course. Right now, we’re trying to implement video-assisted wherein it can be done through video, then that removes the problem of falling out of the program.

The other thing we’ve found out is that people fall out of this TB program because after they feel good, there are no more symptoms they don’t complete the course. So it’s about literacy, health literacy and the social stigma that you’re going to the TB center, then people feel, “may TB iyan, pumupunta sa TB-DOTS clinic iyan.” So these are the things we’re trying to correct. Maybe if we are able to correct this, we will really decrease and treat our TB cases in the Philippines.

On the other hand, one of the things we discussed with the President this morning also is the … I announced to him that we will already be groundbreaking on July 17 the Clark Multi-Specialty Center. This was the original one designated in Executive Order # 19 as the Heart Center that will be built in Clark. We have the land already from the CDC, from the Clark Development Corporation; and then we have the plans already, the design. It will be starting as a general hospital and then move up to a children specialty, and then a cardiac specialty, then the kidney specialty. So it will be just like what we have in the North Triangle of Quezon City wherein you have all the different specialties, and it will be in that corridor in Clark. So that will cover for Central and Northern Luzon cases of heart, lung, kidney and even cancer. So that’s the big plan for that one, and we will be inaugurating that this July 17.

I think I’ll end there muna, Daphne.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay, yeah. Let’s take questions from the media. Chona Yu, Radyo Inquirer.

CHONA YU/RADYO INQUIRER: So, sir, ilang Filipinos po ang may TB? Do you have a … kahit ballpark figure muna.

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: It’s something like a million. A million Filipinos actually have currently positive TB cases. I didn’t bring my figures, but we have the statistics for that and it’s a quite a large number for our population.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Tuesday Niu, DZBB.

TUESDAY NIU/DZBB: Hi, Secretary. Iyong sinabi ninyo, six months usually iyong treatment and program – six to nine months ang TB, bakit four months na lang po? Ano iyong mawawala doon sa program or sa treatment?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: The WHO has recommended a better regimen with all the different drugs that we combined. So we’re following actually a WHO recommendation to shorten. When you shorten the therapy the chances of fall out becomes less. Because it’s so long, iyong nine months na umiinom sila ng gamot, they don’t finish it. Once they don’t feel anything, they’re not coughing, they don’t have fever, they don’t go back to the center anymore to take.

So making the treatment shorter will increase compliance. Mas matatapos natin iyong treatment, and then we can treat the next person faster.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Eden Santos, NET 25.

EDEN SANTOS/NET25: Dok, pagdating po sa gamutan at doon sa gamot po sa TB, is it accessible and mura po ba para naman iyong mga kababayan natin na mayroon nito ay talagang tuluy-tuloy iyong pagpapagamot?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Magandang tanong iyan. Binibili ng government iyong TB meds, it is part of our program and tumutulong din ang Global Fund to supply the medicines.

Unfortunately, ang isang defect ng program na nakita ko ay iyong logistics and supply chain management. I visited certain centers na walang gamot, naabutan ng time ng shortage so that means it’s an issue of supply chain delivery. The medicines are being bought for the estimated number of TB pero from the warehouse to the centers parang nadi-delay.

So this is something I think I can fix. We will try to fix this. Again, the idea is computerizing logistics supply chain so that laging may days to lasts. We did this during COVID eh. Iyong COVID, when I was in charge in the vaccine cluster, natuto kami noon; sa fast-food chain ang nagturo sa amin. They call it, “days to lasts”. So you go to any fast-food chain, hindi ka mauubusan ng chicken or hamburger or fries kasi may days to lasts sila. Ang ginamit namin noon sa vaccine ay seven days to lasts. So each vaccine center had vaccines good for seven days. So ito iyong parang wala pa dito sa TB program, basta mayroon, dadalhin; kapag naubos na, kawawa iyong pasyente na pumunta doon, na gumastos ng pamasahe tapos ‘Ay, ubos na ang meds namin eh. Balik ka na lang next week,’ ganoon. So nagkaka-problem sa therapy.

So these are the things we need to fix. It’s coordination because the national government buys the medicines; the LGU is the one that implements it. Remember, the local government is the one that has the TB-DOTS clinics, and the doctors and nurses are hired by the local government. So talagang it requires some level of national and local coordination.

EDEN SANTOS/NET25: Follow up lang po, isa na lang. Ibig sabihin po ba noon, nagkukulang tayo ng supply ng mga TB meds?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Hindi siya nagkukulang; nadi-delay iyong pag-deliver. I think, sometimes they are just in the warehouse and it’s not delivered to the clinics. So I think it can be solved simply with some logistics expert looking and making sure na nandudoon, dumadating iyong drugs. So iyon iyong isang reasons kaya mayroon tayong mga increasing cases, hindi umaabot sa dulo.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Allan Francisco, PTV 4.

ALLAN FRANCISCO/PTV4: Hi, sir. Sec, as a health expert, can you please just give advice to our kababayans para maiwasan itong TB? I understand, the government ay hindi po nagkulang sa pag-a-advise para maiwasan ito. Comment, sir?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Sige, ipaliwanag ko how the approach is. Well, TB is an airborne infection. And technically, not everybody gets TB. The first step in prevention is really vaccination, iyong BCG (bacille Calmette-Guérin) which is given to children, to neonates, kapag pinanganak. So very important iyon para hindi magka-primary complex ang children.

The second is good nutrition ‘no. The people that get TB are the people that are immunocompromised so ano sila, malnourished, stunted; our children in the poor communities.

The third is social environment, iyong—I know in the informal settlers, you can have four families in one household, in one shanty home. And that kind of environment is like a petri dish for people getting infected. So isang tao lang ma-infect doon o hindi na-treat, it will spread through the household.

And then the treatment is easy: Its modern-day, we have the drugs; we have the treatment to treat TB. It’s not stigma disease anymore. We have the medicines; they are modern. Our problem is the social determinants that affect it, wherein iyon nga, nagtatago sila, takot sila na ma-identify sila na may TB sila. Kasi if you go to the TB-DOTS, your kapitbahay knows “Ay may TB iyan, pumupunta doon sa TB-DOTS,” tapos iiwasan na sila, ayaw na silang kausapin. So, that old mentality na nakakahawa iyan.

Number two, people themselves, siguro health literacy, they feel that if they don’t have ubo and hindi na sila nilalagnat, ayaw nilang uminom ng gamot. And they don’t know that TB, you have to treat it for months to make [it] sure that the bacteria is eliminated from your body. Kapag hindi mo kinomplete [complete] iyong treatment, magri-recur siya.

So very important iyon ano na ma-protect natin, magkaroon tayo ng case-finding. So the first step in TB is of course prevention; the second is active case-finding. Iyong active case-finding, ito ‘yung ginagawa namin ngayon, so we’re trying to look at cases; so the ways to get active TB is if they have symptoms, mag-test sila kaagad through a sputum test or through an x-ray or through the gene expert. Kasi sometimes, they’re already being treated pero bakit pabalik-balik iyong ubo. So iyong gene expert, iyon ‘yung nagdi-detect noong multiple drug resistant. So mataas iyong burden natin ng multiple drug resistant, different class of medicines ang ibibigay para ma-treat natin – and treatable pa rin.

Then, there’s the XDR – the extremely drug resistant. Iyon din ‘yung mahirap, kaya naka-flag ang country natin – kapag may immigrant or OFW, kung minsan may dalang x-ray iyan [laughs] to prove na hindi sila nagka-TB. I had a nephew who’s going to Georgetown, iyon ‘yung questions – “Have you ever had TB and did you have your immunization?” Naka-tag tayo as a country na producer tayo ng TB; so very important iyan for our OFWs and everything. If we eliminate TB, then we have freer mobility to the rest of the global countries.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Uhum. So, screening is done through x-ray?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Yeah. So iyan, the screening is x-rays and doctors… x-ray and then the gene expert, the sputum. Now, iyon ‘yung sinasabi kong AI kasi now the x-ray kung minsan babasahin pa ng radiologist iyan. So the important thing now is we’re using AI (Artificial Intelligence) that can look at an x-ray and already tell you possibly TB, so then you can do na the next step, confirmatory iyong gene expert; then start na natin siya ng therapy.

After active case-finding is making sure that you have TB control of the people that are positive: Kapag nandudoon sila at nagpapagamot sila at matapos nila iyong course, then that’s actually a good thing for us – so that’s minus one person with TB.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Nestor Corrales, Philippine Daily Inquirer.

NESTOR CORRALES/INQUIRER.NET: Good morning, Secretary. Secretary, have you discussed with the President your earlier proposal for him to lift the public health emergency due to COVID? And can you just clarify this one because there were previous pronouncements by the President saying na parang na-lift na rin naman niya ito?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Ah, yeah. Actually, during the time of ano, they already recommended, the IATF already recommended the lifting. But I think the Office of the President have to study some other things that were the consequences of the lifting officially – one was the vaccine issue because mawawala iyong EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) to get the bivalents.

But recently as you heard, Pfizer was given a CPR by our Philippine Food and Drug Administration, so the bivalent is now going to be commercially available. Ang delay lang is that Pfizer is looking for the retailers that have the minus 70 freezers kasi nga it requires storage that has cold chain.

I think what will happen is it will probably go to the hospital pharmacies kasi iyon ‘yung bumili noong mga minus 70 freezers. And some local chief executives also told me, “Bumili rin kami niyan during COVID so we actually can store that.” So, I don’t know how Pfizer will do this but eventually, it will require a physician’s prescription and then you can purchase it from retail and you can also get access to bivalent vaccines.

But for the poor, we’re still negotiating with COVAX for two million doses so that we can still be able to give to those who cannot afford to buy the bivalent.

NESTOR CORRALES/INQUIRER.NET: So, sir, the president is okay for the lifting of the public health emergency?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Yeah. I think he is—his really instruction to me is really to recover from COVID and be able to get back the economy kasi we’ve lost a lot in the economy from the restrictions. So as you know, basically ni-reiterate ko ito kanina during our sectoral meeting that we now consider COVID among health care workers as similar to other illnesses like cough, colds, influenza.

But we still have to protect ourselves. I think the public health warning is you still have to protect yourself if you are vulnerable, and you still need to get the vaccine if you want to be specially protected.

NESTOR CORRALES/INQUIRER.NET: Sir, if the public health emergency is lifted, ano na po mangyayari sa monovalent vaccines natin previously given EUA? Madi-distribute pa rin ba ito sa public for free o kailangan nilang makakuha ng CPR, ng manufacturers, para mabenta sa market?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Iyon, because the—we can still distribute them. I think they’re still valid as booster doses but most of the demand now is really the bivalent vaccine because that’s the better version – it has all the Omicron variants also.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Alexis Romero, Philippine Star.

ACE ROMERO/PHILIPPINE STAR: Secretary, you mentioned the Philippines being the fourth around the world in terms of TB cases. Ano naman iyong goal sa na-set ng DOH to address TB? Mayroon ba tayong timeline halimbawa by this time dapat ganito na lang iyong cases, mayroon ba tayong mga ganoong targets?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Yeah. The first thing I did was to appoint an action officer kasi madaming efforts iyan eh – that’s the effort of the local government, that’s the effort of hospitals, that’s the effort of national government to buy the machine; so, niri-review namin iyong current program. Ako, ang personal target ko if you ask me is to get us out of the top ten by the end of my term. If I’m able to go down to eleven, I’ll be happy.

Usually the idea is to find all TB cases. So mayroon rate, iyong TB case-finding rate which we will see that hopefully it will decline and; what we call the ‘cure rate’ of the TB you find, how many are able to complete now the four-month course of TB drugs. So iyon ‘yung considered cured ‘no. So, iyon ang percentages na babantayan namin – the cure rate and the active case-finding rate.

ACE ROMERO/PHILIPPINE STAR: So by the end of the term, out of top ten? But iyong immediate goal, Secretary, ano iyong ating immediate target for this particular health issue?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Well, in terms of numbers I cannot tell you. But I will tell you that I’d like to find all TB cases – so active case-finding and treatment, to cure for all these kasi it’s curable eh – so dapat walang mag-fallout. So, some TB programs… nakikita mo iyong fallout ilang percent. So iyon, maging zero iyong fallout – ma-complete nila iyong whole TB drug program.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Haydee Sampang.

HAYDEE SAMPANG/DZAS: Good afternoon po, Secretary. May panukala po si Senator Jinggoy Estrada na imbestigahan po ng Senado iyong mga fake advertisements ng mga gamot at mga food supplements po na gumagamit po ng name or ng mukha po ng mga sikat na personalities. Sa part po ng DOH, ano po kaya iyong mga action plans po na puwede ninyong gawin para mapigilan po iyong paglipana po nito sa social media na nakakabiktima po ng marami po nating kababayan?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Yeah, thank you very much. I’ve seen this in social media, many of my friends, doctor-friends who are popular and especially have been victimized for a drug that they did not endorse using their photos taken out of social media – and these are really the scammers. So, this is under the realm—In DOH, this is under the realm of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) – they are a regulatory agency with police powers.

So I think our—I’ll instruct the head of FDA, si Sam Zacate to actually coordinate with the NBI to really get to the bottom of this. Some of the personalities – Dr. Willie Ong, Dr. Leachon – have actually filed cases with the Cybercrime Division of the NBI – pero nawawala and then bumabalik… tapos ibang dignitary. So I think, maybe you can help me inform the public that there are such scams wherein they use a popular doctor for treatment of diabetes or treatment of hypertension that is not valid.

HAYDEE SAMPANG/DZAS: Pero, Sec., siguro—paano po mai-inform or mai-educate iyong mga kababayan po natin na huwag pong tangkilikin iyong mga ganitong produkto available online na hindi po approved ng ating FDA? Ano po iyong mga dangers po niya sa health?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: So, the first thing I will advise our citizen is to make sure that the drugs they will procure or buy ay may FDA approval. Mayroon iyon sa lahat – sa bottle or sa box nakalagay “FDA Approved” and those are the ones that are legal. Many that come in are what we call illicit or smuggled from abroad – they are not registered brands, they are contraband products and the FDA can actually confiscate or closedown stores or shops that sell these even online.

So, I think I’ll just instruct. I’m glad you mentioned that because I was reading that in the news na mayroon pa rin and I thought that would already stop with registration of the phone and you know ‘di ba mayroon na tayong phone registration – should be easy to catch them with the SIM registration but apparently it still continue, they’re very still very bold in making all these Facebook and social media cards that seem to promote a certain drug using the image of a popular doctor.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Ivan Mayrina, GMA 7.

IVAN MAYRINA/GMA 7: Sec, itong Clark Multispecialty Hospital, correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the first of its several regional hospitals na gusto pong i-replicate ng pangulo, binanggit niya po ito sa kaniyang SONA noong nakaraan. How are we doing with this plan to replicate this specialty hospital sa region?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Let me correct this information. Although the President mentioned this since we passed the sin taxes during my time when I was Undersecretary, remember we were building heart, lung, kidney Centers. So, this effort to actually build specialty centers outside Metro Manila was an ongoing Department of Health project.

Kanina during the meeting, I actually presented to the President those that are finished for example the heart, lung center at Cagayan de Oro which is doing heart operations. Now, heart center used to go there – now they already assigned a graduate, a cardiac surgeon that actually does practice there and continuous na iyong heart surgeon.

So, many of these other places that had been built through sin tax money have now eye centers, dermatology centers, cancer centers that had been built pero quite; it’s not getting the news but the services are now available to people outside Metro Manila.

So it’s a work in progress, tuluy-tuloy iyan. Maganda rin iyong idea of putting them all in one place kasi nga if it’s regional like the one in Quezon City ‘di ba they’re all together, they called that the ano…so the joke nga is that’s ‘Bituka 1’ and the other one iyong Clark is ‘Bituka 2’ – that’s the joke among the doctors how they call it the lung, kidney, heart kasi that’s the ‘Bopis’ Hospital they call it. But that’s us calling it fondly as a nickname – we combined all of these internal organs and then they have specialty centers.

IVAN MAYRINA/GMA 7: So, kung magbi-break ground na po iyong sa Clark, do we expect the others to follow for example the one in UP-Manila may cancer…

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: A cancer center, that’s the PPP Cancer Center in UP-Manila.

IVAN MAYRINA/GMA 7: Sa UP Diliman magkaka-PGH yata.

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: PGH also as a public-private partnership. So, we’re doing all modes. This one in Clark has combination of donations and government appropriations – so it’s like a PPP as well.

So, we’re harnessing the private sector that’s been very…I‘d like to commend the private sector for helping me out in the goals for implementing the health outcomes. So, they’ve been helping us a lot, reaching out; they’re willing to help.

So, the government alone cannot do it, the private sector has a big role in improving our health services and the specialty services as well. So, hopefully very soon those hospitals will rise.

Ang magandang pala, it’s phased. So it’s not a very ambitious na it will rise agad, you know naman how it is ‘no – you build one to two years then you operationalize it then you wait another two years to get a program. So, like the multispecialty, the pathway is a general hospital maybe a hundred-bed general hospital and then it will become a children’s specialty center and then the heart will come in.

So, as it gets better it will improve the services, and that has been the pathway in the other specialty centers in the different regions. So, if you go to the different regions in the Philippines they’re now able to do like for example Southern Philippines Medical Center – may heart center na rin doon sa Davao, sa Southern Philippines and most of the Davao people just go there to Southern Philippines for heart operation; then we added the Cagayan de Oro; then in Cebu there’s Vicente Sotto doing heart operations. So, ano iyan work in progress. You don’t build a heart center in a day kasi matagal mag-train ng cardiac centers [sic].

Before I became Undersecretary, I’m part of the Trauma Center Technical Working Group kasi I’m a trauma surgeon. So trauma [centers] naman iyong bini-build namin, we identified 22 trauma centers but when we realized we had the money for the trauma centers we realized we had very few trauma surgeons. So, we’re now pushing for training young people to go into my field of trauma surgery so that they will become the chief of those trauma centers when it’s built. So, we’ve established one in Paulino J. Garcia (PJG) and one of the doctors there was sent to PGH to train under our team. So, hopefully we’ll return her again after six months and then she’ll continue running and then she’ll be the chief of that trauma center – so that’s the one in Central Luzon. And then we have many more – Jose Reyes East Avenue and different parts of the Philippines. But the funding is like four or five per year and then next year another four or five. So, I’m in that technical working group for trauma; there’s a technical working group for cancer; there’s a technical working group for burns. So, there’s a lot of money that’s going to be put in nationwide development of different trauma centers.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. So, we have Cathy Valente and then Harley Balbuena.

CATHERINE VALENTE/MLA TIMES: Hi, sir. Good afternoon po. Sir, itanong lang namin kung anu-ano po iyong mga health related bills na ipu-push po ng DOH sa LEDAC? Kasama po ba dito iyong proposed bill po creating the Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Yes, actually those are several bills that I presented to the President as ways forward. The bill for the Center for Disease Control is now with the Senate, the House bill has passed. So, the Senate is now redoing version and they have some questions to it, which I was asked to answer as well. So idi-discuss din namin iyan. There are certain provisions that they want to put in. The other one is the Virology Institute of the Philippines, pero that’s under the Department of Science and Technology. Nasa Senate na rin iyan for final details na lang. Hopefully mapasa na rin iyan with the prioritization of the President.

The third is the—dati, it was called the Medical Reserve Corps. But this bill will now be called HEART – Health Emergency Auxiliary Response Teams. So this is like pooling all our doctors so that we can call them when we have a pandemic like COVID-19. So, it’s basically a pool or—they didn’t want the name in the Senate iyong Medical Reserve Corps because it sounds so military. So they changed the name to HEART, so it’s going to be a HEART Act.

So, it’s basically asking private doctors to actually join the government when there is a crisis and doctors are needed. Ano pa ba iyong bills na—we want to also help the Barangay Health Workers, so we are trying to look for, find a bill to pass the magna carta for Barangay Health Workers. So, marami pa Virology, medical—I think those are the priority. And they are very near completion because they are already in the Senate.

HARLEY BALBUENA/DZME: Hello. Good afternoon po, Miss Daphne, Secretary. Sir, the DOST-PAGASA today just announced the start of El Niño phenomenon in the country. What are the health hazards of these and what measures will the DOH do to keep the public safe from El Niño-related diseases?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Thank you, very important ang climate and diseases that go with it. When you have an El Niño year, that means that’s more rain; when you have more rain, we start to have vector-borne diseases. We start with dengue because if you have more.

HARLEY BALBUENA/DZME: El Niño.

MS. DAPHNE OSEÑA-PAEZ: Drought.

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Drought. If there is less rain then the problem is less production of food.

MS. DAPHNE OSEÑA-PAEZ: But we could also have longer rain as the DOST said?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Ang El Niño has both. If they call it El Niño it’s both. There is longer dry and there is heavy rain.

MS. DAPHNE OSEÑA-PAEZ: That’s right.

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: So iyon. So iyong waterborne illnesses like dengue. You have mosquitos that will thrive because there will be, if there is rain, there is a pooling of water where the mosquitos will thrive. Then, you have leptospirosis also. And then, basta all of them are mostly vector-borne diseases, gastrointestinal illnesses. The longer dry season is really for more for our food in terms of shortage of food production and that will, in some areas, may cause hunger and increased malnutrition.

So we are monitoring this. Aside from that heat-related illnesses will probably be a factor, because it’s El Niño, it’s both very hot and very wet di ba, so very hot can actually affect a lot of people in terms of heat-related illnesses from heat exhaustion to heat stroke. So, we need to remind the public about all these diseases. That will be the role of the DOH to actually keep this information going out and tell the public what to do and what not to do.

HARLEY BALBUENA/DZME: Sir, mas mataas po ba iyong risk ng pagkakaroon ng TB kapag po mainit nga, dahil po sa El Niño or hindi naman?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: That’s a good question. Basically what happens, kapag rainy season when you have a respiratory illness the chances of getting it is higher. So, influenza season actually happens during our rainy season, why? Because people stay in enclosed spaces. And if you have one person coughing, the rest of the people in the room get infected when they get out.

So, if you ask the TB, that’s the correlate for TB, it’s airborne. So, if one person has TB and you are all inside a cramped space because it’s raining outside and all the windows are closed, the chances to infect others is higher. So, iyon iyong philosophy doon hindi iyong dahil nabasa iyong likod tapos trinangkaso ka. It’s really a respiratory illness in enclosed spaces, enclosed sa bus, enclosed sa taxi, sa ano. And then you have other public people there. So iyon iyong the main cause of that.

ALVIN BALTAZAR/RADYO PILIPINAS: Secretary, magandang hapon po. Secretary, i-follow-up ko lang iyong question kanina ni Nestor. Tungkol doon sa public health emergency, doon sa lifting. For the record po, ano po ang pasya dito ni Pangulong Marcos? Inclined po ba siya na mai-lift ito?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Yes, actually this was one of his first instructions to me to really get out of the COVID pandemic. I think what happens now is that the risk is passed on to individuals. So for your information, the WHO already removed COVID-19 from the list of public health emergency of international concern, so it’s considered by WHO as just one of the diseases. And even for us, doctors, we now also consider it as just one of the respiratory illnesses. There is still the risk of death for vulnerable people which is the elderly and those with medical conditions, immunocompromised. But the number of deaths has already declined.

So, there are two things that cause that: Either everyone’s already vaccinated or number two, the Omicron subvariant is really milder compared to the original Delta or Alpha that killed so many Filipinos.

ALVIN BALTAZAR/RADYO PILIPINAS: So, Sec, follow-up lang po: Do we expect the President na mag-isyu ng EO or memo regarding this in the next coming days?

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Yeah, I am just waiting for that IATF resolution. So, the IATF Resolution for this was issued by my predecessor, OIC Vergeire. So, if that is not yet signed, I will follow it up with a reiteration. Because I think at that time, they were still hesitant because there was still the problem of how we get the bivalent if we lift it. But now, I think that obstacle is gone, kasi may CPR na tayo and everything.

MS. DAPHNE OSEÑA-PAEZ: So we are headed there.

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: We are headed there. We are on the path. As I said, I told the President, thank you for bringing us out of the pandemic.

MS. DAPHNE OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. I think that ends our press conference with Secretary Herbosa. Thank you very much. Thank you, Malacañang Press Corps. Have a good afternoon.

DOH SEC. HERBOSA: Thank you very much. Magandang hapon po.

 

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News and Information Bureau – Transcription Section