Philippines
National Action Plan for Strengthening the Surveillance, Program Monitoring and Laboratory Systems for the National Viral Hepatitis Response in the Philippines
In the Philippines it is estimated that 16.7% of the adult population are living with hepatitis B. This prevalence is more than double the 8% average prevalence in the Western Pacific region, and more than 16 times the Australian prevalence. Considering Philippines large population, this equates to an estimated 7.3 million adult Filipinos, which is more than the entire Victorian population. Although not as great as hepatitis B, the Philippines also has a large hepatitis C burden, with studies estimating 700,000 to 1 million Filipinos living with hepatitis C.
In response to this enormous burden and need for a comprehensive and multi-sectoral action to control hepatitis B and hepatitis C, the Department of Health (DOH), through its National HIV, AIDS and STI Prevention and Control Program in collaboration with the World Health Organization, Doherty Institute and the National Reference Laboratory conducted a series of workshops to develop a national Strategic Information Plan and Action Plan. From previous experience in Mongolia, it was decided to host two workshops, inviting a range of diverse participants such as epidemiologists, statisticians, program coordinators for programs such as surveillance, immunization and blood bank, health data IT specialists, laboratory managers, clinicians, insurance companies and community organisation members.
The first workshop was held August 16th – 17th in Manilla and Nicole Romero (Doherty) and Sue Best (NRL) were invited by the DOH to assist WHO in organising and facilitating this workshop. The main objective was to adapt WHO guidelines for Surveillance and Programme Monitoring to develop a draft national M&E framework for the elimination of HBV and HCV.
Considering the diversity of expertise, organisations and backgrounds, the first day of the workshop was spent understanding the current landscape, programmes and work that is currently being undertaken. It created great base knowledge for the rest of the sessions and helped participants map the current viral hepatitis response and identify gaps. Many useful questions were raised which prompted discussions around future steps for the Philippines, and the best ways on how to solve highlighted problems. Many discussions centered around limitations of IT systems and software, a common problem in many developing countries.
The second day was an action day, with discussions and drafting of the national M&E framework for viral hepatitis. The group were determined and enthusiastic to implement learnings from the previous day and an enormous amount of work was done in a very short amount of time. By the end of the day a draft M&E framework was developed, incorporating ideas and opinions of many key stakeholders and experts. After the workshop, this draft was circulated for further comments, with the intent of finalising at the second workshop.
The second workshop was held September 6th – 8th in Tagaytay, Philippines and Benjamin Cowie (Doherty) was invited to facilitate and provide expertise for this workshop. The main aim of the workshop was to develop a national action plan for the establishment and linkage of viral hepatitis surveillance, patient monitoring and laboratory systems.