In 2021, to curb the spread of the disease and reduce the incidence rate – currently the fourth highest in the world – MSF started activities in the capital, Manila. In 2022, we launched new activities with a mobile X-ray truck in the district of Tondo, one of the capital’s most densely populated and impoverished areas, where people are most susceptible to TB infection. In collaboration with the Manila Health Department, our teams provided health promotion to encourage people to undergo chest X-ray examination. Patients are then referred to local health centres for treatment. Our teams also conduct home visits immediately after the diagnosis to screen households’ close contacts, administer TB skin tests, and offer preventive TB treatment to children. Early diagnosis and treatment are some of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of TB.

In Marawi, in the southern part of the Philippines, we continued to assist people displaced and affected by the armed confrontation between government forces and pro-Islamic State group militants in 2017, by providing general and mental health care, as well as treatment for non-communicable diseases. In December, with the acute and post-emergency phases of our medical response over, we closed the project and handed over activities to local health organisations. 

Following the devastation caused in December 2021 by Super Typhoon Rai (locally known as Odette), which affected central and southern Philippines and displaced around 333,000 people, MSF carried out an emergency response in the island-province of Dinagat and on outlying islands of Surigao City. Lasting until mid-March, the intervention focused on supporting health facilities with additional staff, running mobile clinics offering mental health and psychosocial support in isolated areas, facilitating referrals of critical patients, distributing hygiene items and safe water, and donating essential medical materials. 

*Department of Health 2019 Philippines TB joint program review, https://ntp.doh.gov.ph/download/joint-program-review-2019-epidemiological-review/