Mario owns a travel agency. He traveled around the globe. He had a lavish lifestyle, always smoking, drinking, and partying to his heart’s desire. He had money. He had lots of friends. He was enjoying life to the limits. Then in 1999, to his surprise, he was diagnosed with TB.

World TB Day participants gave their loudest cheer during the event at the Quezon Memor- ial Circle.

By 2003, he still was not cured of TB. He already lost a lot of weight and has been suffering from persistent back pains. Little did he know that his defaulting on his treatment has strengthened the TB bacteria. His body is not responding anymore to any of the regular TB drugs, making him a Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB case – a deadly and highly infectious form of TB.

There is also Tess, a bank employee and a graduate of a prestigious school. She had TB for more than 11 years. She contracted the bacteria from a security guard near her workspace. Tess continued to work despite having TB. However, her condition deteriorated and eventually, she became an MDR TB case.

Both Mario and Tess were referred to the Makati Medical Center, through the Tropical Disease Foundaiton, which has a treatment program for MDR TB patients. They are only two of the many professionals and affluent people admitted there.

Compared to other regular TB patients, Mario was more fortunate to have the money to order TB drugs from the United States and India. Cost of medicines alone for a single MDR TB patient would reach up to almost half a million a year. Admittedly, Mario said that his savings were eaten up by his illness.

Add to these, the physical and emotional pain TB brought to his life. Everyday, he had to endure the agonizing size effects of each expensive tablet he took – fear of light, nausea, dizziness, catatonia, schizophrenia, depression, insomnia, and severe stomach pains. His party friends whom he thought would support him suddenly disappeared. His family stayed away for fear of getting the same illness. The only people who remained with him during the lowest point of his life were his maids.

Both Mario and Tess are now cured of TB after their 20-month medication. They are now part of a TB advocacy group called Samahang Ligtas Baga.

Recently, people around the world were seen joining forces to send a message to everyone as they celebrate World TB Day on the heavy toll TB brings to the individual, to the family, to the community, and to the country – a strong statement that the Philippines, known to have one of the highest TB burden in the world, must not ignore.

TB has been in existence since time immemorial. Not everyone knows that it is the leading infectious killer, one of the deadlines diseases of all time. It is causing some 1,000 deaths a day, far more than AIDS.

In the Philippines alone, which ranks ninth place in the world for having the highest TB burden, around 80 to 100 Filipinos die everyday of tuberculosis, according to the Department of Health. This is the alarming threat that TB brings. Not only does it kill, but it greatly affects the economy.

In a study conducted in 2000 by USAID, it was found out that TB robs an average Filipino worker of P216 per day for women and P451 per day for men. In another study conducted by the Philippine Tubercolosis for the Private Sector (PhilTIPS), our country loses around P26.4 billion income due to premature deaths from TB. Total annual loses to the Philippine economy associated with TB are P7.9 billion in wages alone.

The greater the number of Filipinos with active TB in the community, the more Filipinos will also be infected. The more people to be infected with TB, the greater the damage to the economy. Filipinos do not need more damage to its already worn-out country. Thus, the best way now to prevent further damage that TB brings is to look for active TB cases and effectively cure them before they become MDR-TB cases.

One of the organizations doing this is the World Vision Development Foundation Inc, (WVDF), through its Social Mobilization on Tubercolosis (SMT) Project. Involving civil society – the ordinary Filipino citizens – in TB prevention and control had been the project’s unique approach.

The project organizes TB task forces in the communities and trains tem to identify TB symptomatics, to refer patients to public health facilities for consultation or diagnosis, to act as treatment partners to TB patients, to do advocacy activities to create TB awareness in their community, and to increase demand for Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) services – a strategy recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the most cost-effective means of curing TB.

Currently, these organized TB task forces are recognized and seen to contribute to all existing efforts in fighting tuberculosis as they take an active role in the advocacy, planning, healthy education, participation in World TB Day and Lung Month celebrations, and implementation of the DOTS. WVDF has already organized 163 TB task forces and support groups within communities in Bataan, Zambales, Leyte, Palawan, bohol, Sorsogon, Ormoc, Puerto Princesa, Tagbilaran, Cagayan de Oro and Butuan.

With the rapid decline in availability of competent health staff needed in doing quality diagnosis and treatment of TB cases due to high influx of our nurses and health practitioners going abroad, mobilizing the communities to advocate for a healthy-free place is a good strategy to be adopted at a national level.

Total eradication of TB in the country has a long way to go. Nevertheless, some institutions and even the communities have already started doing something about it. What we need now is to persevere and continue as a team to fight against TB. As one state university professor puts it, "Kung hindi ngayon kikilos, kelan pa? Kung hindi tayo ang gagawa, sino pa?". Do we have to wait for all of us to be wiped out by TB?

(The contributing author is currently working for a special funded health project in an international NGO. For comments or inquiries, email grace_gayoso@yahoo.com.)