USAID Philippines Acting Mission Director Eubanks (front right) joins House Speaker Romualdez (front middle) and DOH Officer-in-Charge Vergeire (front left) at the National Lung Month celebration in Quezon City on August 22.
U.S. supports QC in fight vs TB, COVID-19
IN celebration of National Lung Month, the U.S. government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is supporting the Quezon City local government to strengthen tuberculosis (TB) detection efforts by integrating free TB screening at select COVID-19 booster vaccination sites in the city.
USAID Philippines Acting Mission Director Rebekah Eubanks joined House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Department of Health (DOH) Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire, and Quezon City Vice Mayor Gian Sotto in launching integrated TB screening and booster vaccination activities at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City on August 22.
“The U.S. government continues to demonstrate its commitment to help the Philippines achieve its development goals, and, more importantly, survive this pandemic that has hampered economic activities and continues to affect the health of Filipino families,” said Acting Mission Director Eubanks. “Together, we are forging stronger public-private partnerships to bolster health response efforts for both TB and COVID-19.”
House Speaker Romualdez thanked USAID for its partnership and reiterated Congress’s support of TB and COVID-19 prevention efforts. “Our role in Congress will be to engage our peers to allocate funds for sustainable TB detection, care, treatment, and prevention,” said Speaker Romualdez.
“We will include the integration of TB and COVID-19 efforts in our agenda,” Romualdez added.
To support the Philippine government’s TB and COVID-19 prevention efforts, USAID is training healthcare workers on TB and COVID-19 infection prevention and control and offering workshops on community TB screening and contact tracing.
USAID also offers free chest X-rays, refers TB presumptive individuals for treatment, and works with the Quezon City Health Office to disseminate information about TB prevention and control.
“Through this program, TB screening will be more accessible to high-risk communities. We will be able to reach out to a greater number of individuals and provide them access to treatment,” said Vice Mayor Sotto. “Here in Quezon City, we will work hard to strengthen our TB response.”
Sotto also underscored the importance of the joint efforts of the Philippine government and private partners to end TB amid COVID-19. “We are very appreciative as well of the additional resources from USAID and URC and their partner, Advance Abilities. Through their assistance, our work here in Quezon City will not be as difficult.”
Since the pandemic began, the U.S. government has invested more than P2.8 billion ($50 million) in the Philippines’ COVID-19 response. USAID has also equipped the DOH and local government partners with P130 million pesos ($2.3 million) worth of innovative tools for TB detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
For more than 60 years, USAID has worked with the Philippine government and local organizations to achieve shared development goals, investing more than P247.5 billion ($5.1 billion) to support the Philippines since 1961.
