By GENALYN KABILING
April 26, 2010, 5:10pm
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed a new law establishing a research and treatment facility for malaria and other tropical and infectious diseases in Sibutu, Tawi-Tawi amid concerns on the high malaria cases in the province.
Under Republic Act No. 10043, the Malaria, Tropical and Infectious Disease Research and Treatment Institute will be integrated with the Datu Alawaddin Badon hospital to combat the spread of the diseases prevalent among the residents in the province.
Tawi-Tawi, where residents live mostly in coastal villages, is one of the provinces with most malaria cases in the country.
Malaria, a disease caused by protozoan parasites called plasmodium, is usually transmitted through a bite of an infected female anopheles mosquito. Symptoms of the disease include chills, fever, sweating, headache, body weakness, and nausea.
The new law provides that the Institute, under the direct supervision of the Department of Health, shall be at par with a secondary hospital with a capacity of at least 50 beds. Aside from the existing facility of the Datu Alawaddin Bandon Hospital, the Institute will be housed in two buildings, each with a capacity of at least 25 beds.
The facility is envisioned to service the municipality of Sibutu as well as other municipalities in Tawi-Tawi.
The establishment will be done gradually over a two year-period starting from the approval of the new law. A 50-bed facility will be built in Barangay Hadji Bidin in Sibutu in the first year and satellite facilities in other 10 municipalities throughout the province in the second year.
The new medical facility will be a repository of all data and base for researches on malaria, tropical and infectious diseases.
The law mandated the Secretary of Health to include in the department's programs the operationalization of the Malaria, Tropical and Infectious Disease Research and Treatment Institute, the funding of which will be included in the annual budget.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao shall also continue to provide funds for the operation of the Datu Alawaddin Bandon Hospital until its integration with the new institute.
The law was signed last March 18 by the President.
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/254696/new-law-establishes-malaria-center
