Skip to main content
A long road back to normal

Philippines

War in Gaza:: find out how we're responding
Learn more
Our teams in the Philippines work on tackling the alarming tuberculosis (TB) incidence rate in the country, which is the highest in Asia.

In 2021, we launched a new TB project in the densely populated and impoverished Tondo area of the capital, Manila.

In the southern city of Marawi, we continued to provide general and mental healthcare to people displaced and affected by the armed conflict that erupted between the army and a group related to the Islamic State group in 2017.  

In 2020 and 2021, our teams supported in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in 2022, to the typhoon Rai response in Northern Mindanao.

Our activities in 2022 in the Philippines

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2022.

MSF in the Philippines in 2022 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continued to respond to the high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the Philippines, where it kills an estimated three people every hour.*
Philippines IAR map 2022

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/

 

in 2022
 
MSF Supply warehouse in Brussels, Belgium
Philippines

MSF sends two cargo planes of medical and relief items while first teams arrive in Cebu

Project Update 10 Nov 2013
 
Response to Typhoon Bopha, Philippines
Philippines

MSF team runs mobile clinics following typhoon

Project Update 31 Dec 2012
 
Floods in the region of Mindanao Island
Philippines

MSF's response in Mindanao Island following the typhoon

Voices from the Field 6 Jan 2012
 
Philippines

Activities suspended on Mindanao island, Philippines, after 46 killed

Project Update 25 Nov 2009
 
Ondoy Typhon , Angono, novembre 2009.
Philippines

Struck twice by tropical storms, MSF works with the most vulnerable

Project Update 23 Oct 2009
 
Philippines

MSF mobiles teams providing emergency assistance in newly flooded area in the northern Philippines

Project Update 13 Oct 2009