This is one of the news reports yesterday,
DOH: 55 children
dead in Metro Manila measles outbreak
San Lazaro Hospital had admitted over 1,500 patients
since start of the year
By: Jovic Yee - Reporter / 05:20 AM February 07, 2019
For many years now, we have been bombarded by the DOH,
WHO, many health NGOs and physician groups to be scared of, and pour lots of
public and private money on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Now the real
communicable and infectious diseases are with us. The vaccine vs communicable
disease dengue has been overly-politicized vs the previous administration.
Meanwhile, an advice from my physician friend, Dr. Jed
Inciong: "Please, please have your children vaccinated against preventable
diseases!”
Among the reasons for the outbreak is the political drama by the head of the Public Attorney's Office (PAO), Persida Acosta.
My problem with pouring huge public money on NCDs is that
these are bottomless spending diseases. Even if we have P1 trillion/year for
NCDs (1/3 of total budget) they won't be enough. Treating an advance stage
cancer case might require 7 digits per patient. So even a P200/pack tobacco
tax, or P200/liter beer tax will not be enough.
A better situation is that public money be focused on
controlling communicable diseases like measles, dengue and malaria. Limited and
capped amount of public resources be used for NCDs. People should get private
health insurance to complement govt health insurance, plus charity, to deal
with NCDs.
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