Surgeon reveals a recent global shortage of organs
By: Hazel F. Gloria
CEBU CITY, June 8 (PIA) --- Dr. Alvin Roxas a Transplant Surgeon of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) revealed there is a worldwide shortage of organs nowadays because it seems that more people need organ transplantation.
In an AGIO forum held recently, Dr. Roxas bared that there is an increase of new chemotherapy dialysis every year for those people with an acute disturbance in kidney function.
In 2008, there were 7,000 patients nationwide suffering from kidney failures and in 2009, it reached to 8,000-10,000 patients with the same disease, Roxas continued.
Roxas said, kidney disease risk factors include diabetes, high blood pressure, hereditary diseases, obesity, smoking, severe lung disorders and age.
“Early detection and treatment can increase the life of the kidneys. Exercise, a balanced diet and drinking plenty of water will help to keep your kidneys working well,” Roxas said.
Acute kidney failure (AKF) is a medical condition characterized by loss of functioning of the kidneys in performing their most vital function, which is the elimination of wastes and urine out of the body and thus helping maintain the electrolytic balance inside the body, the doctor explained.
Due to the inability of the kidneys to perform their functions, various nitrogenous wastes and toxins accumulate inside the body, leading to various health risks such as acidification of the blood and modifications in the electrolytic balance, Roxas went on.
“The best way to prevent from having kidney problems is to live a healthy lifestyle,” Roxas concluded. (PIA-7/HFG)
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Access to health insurance still elusive
By: Minerva BC Newman
CEBU, June 8 (PIA) --- Access to health insurance in the country is still elusive as 23.5M Filipinos are yet to be covered by the government’s healthcare program.
To realize this, Senator Loren Legarda has filed a bill amending the National Health Insurance Act or RA-7875. This Act mandates that an affordable and accessible healthcare coverage should be made available to all citizens.
“However, access to healthcare continues to be a problem, if not completely missing, for indigent Filipinos all over the country,” Legarda said.
She cited the government’s efforts to provide healthcare services to poor citizens as it allocated P3.5B to cover the health insurance premiums of indigent families this year.
In Central Visayas alone, there are already 1,733,564 total members of the PhilHealth of which 1,186,666 come from Cebu while Bohol has 310,265 members. Negros Oriental has 210,290 PhilHealth members and Siquijor with 25,343 people covered.
Legarda also noted that the share of health expenditure to GDP rose from 3.7 percent in 2007 to 3.8 percent in 2009.
However, it is still below the five percent (5%) standard set by the World Health Organization for developing countries like the Philippines .
The out-of-pocket payments by Filipino patients have escalated to 49 percent while that of social insurance payments is a low 11percent, the senator added.
Senate Bill 2849 seeks to address this by mandating the national government to entirely subsidize the contributions for indigent enrollees,” the Senator explained.
Through this proposed measure, Legarda hopes the government can continue to extend basic and affordable healthcare protection to citizens and families in need, Legarda concluded.
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DOH celebrates World Blood Donor Day
By: Maryknoll B. Lague
CEBU CITY, June 7 (PIA) --- In line with the celebration of the World Blood Donor Day this June 14 the Department of Health (DOH-7) invites everyone to donate blood and to participate in the various activities lined up for the day.
In an AGIO Forum yesterday, Dr. Sophia Mancao, head of the National Voluntary Blood Services Program (NVBSP) said the blood donation activity is hosted by the Department of Health’s Center for Health Development in Central Visayas with the active participation of the Philippine Red Cross and Local Government Units in region 7.
Mancao added, there will also be discussion about the current usage of donated blood and all other issues concerning blood donations that will be held at the Alona White Beach Resort in Panglao Bohol.
Dr. Mancao said celebrating the World Blood Donor Day is very significant in a country like the Philippines that has inadequate blood supply and is very critical to get safe blood donors.
The City Health Department (CHD) on the other hand urged everybody specially those healthy ones to donate blood voluntarily with the hope to save lives.
This one day celebration aims to acknowledge, recognize and thank the donors who voluntarily donate their blood and also to create wider awareness of the importance of voluntary blood donation to encourage more people to become regular blood donors.
WBDD is an annual celebration worldwide that aims to highlight that voluntary blood donors are the basis of safe blood supply because they are least likely to transmit potentially life-threatening infections, such as HIV and Hepatitis viruses to the blood recipients.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “More Blood, More life". (PIA-7/mbcn/Maryknoll B. Lague )
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Cebu PIOs to meet, agenda include P-Noy’s MTPDP
By Fayette C. Riñen
CEBU CITY, June 7 (PIA) -- What the Aquino Administration is doing and how it wants the country to move towards a progressive Philippines can be better understood in the grassroots level as frontliners of local government units (LGUs) in Cebu converge next week where part of the agenda is the orientation briefing on the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP).
Members of the Cebu Association of City and Municipal Public Information Officers (CAOCAMPIO) will hold a two-day ‘Communication and Strategic Planning Workshop’ on June 17 and 18 hosted by the town of San Remegio in northern Cebu basically aimed at enhancing the capability of public information officers (PIOs) on strengthening communication skills to promote local governance and local initiatives vis-à-vis P-NOY’s Agenda.
Apart from the skills enhancement training, another basic objective of the activity is to strengthen the association and how PIOs as representatives of LGUs can share their best practices in local governance.
En route to San Remegio, the group will hold a courtesy caravan to local chief executives of northern towns. Towns that the group plans to pay a courtesy visit are the municipalities of Consolacion, Liloan, Carmen, Danao, Sogod, Tabogon and the City of Bogo.
The CAOCAMPIO has been in existence for over 20 years and has always been an indispensable partner of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) in helping communicate the policies, programs and thrusts of the executive branch.
As frontliners in their respective locality, the PIOs serve as an essential bridge of the National Government to inform the people especially in the grassroots level the priority thrusts of the administration.
PIA Director General Atty. Jose Fabia meanwhile, has underlined the importance of getting the support and cooperation of the people as partners in nation building that initially starts with good governance policies in their respective localities.
Fabia said Pres. Aquino has always echoed that his administration is anchored on good governance and anti-corruption in order to remind LGUs that these should also be the basic theme in their style of local governance.
“Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap,” Fabia pointed out Aquino’s own strong message.
The CAOCAMPIO activity is conducted in partnership with the Philippine Information Agency(PIA)-7 and Cebu InfoCenter being the coordinator of the group.
Cebu has nine cities and over municipalities. (PIA 7-Cebu)
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Balamban abaca farmers complete hand stripping device operation training
By: Felojyn Sundo
BALAMBAN, Cebu June 7 (PIA) --- At least 25 abaca farmers from the four abaca growing barangays of Balamban, Cebu have completed the training on the use of improvised hand stripping device being introduced by the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) on May 18 at the Gaas Barangay Hall in Balamban.
FIDA-7 staff in coordination with the Barangay Unity Key to Integrated Development Multipurpose Cooperative (BUKID-MPC), Municipal Agriculture Office of Balamban and Gaas Barangay officials spearheaded the training for the participants from Barangays Gaas, Bayong, Magsaysay(Sunog) and Cansomoroy. .
The training featured the theory and the actual stripping operation of the device and the optimum abaca management practices with emphasis on abaca pests and diseases management..
FIDA-7 regional director, Benjamin Gomo said, fiber quality and quantity can highly be affected by pest and diseases and he also cited the convenience of mounting and the efficiency in fiber extraction as one of the few advantages of the equipment.
On the last day of the training,FIDA-7 handed in 10 units hand stripping devices to the respective barangays with the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between and among FIDA, LGU Balamban and the BUKI-MPC.
BUKID-MPC chairman, Jose Bebelonio Pepito said that the hand stripping device is very effective and efficient in producing high quality abaca fiber and that would consequently boost fiber production and would eventually augment the income of the BUKID-MPC farmer-members.9PIA-7/mbcn & FIDA-7/Balamban LGU)
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Families’ victims of disasters receive assistance from Cebu City congressmen
By: Hazel F. Gloria
CEBU CITY , June 06 (PIA) --- Some 198 families that were displaced and victims of disasters received assistance from the Cebu City congressmen.
These families used to live along the river banks of Mahiga creek and from the Rajah Jumabon Street at the North Reclamation Area. They were displaced during this year’s cloudburst that hit the cities of Cebu and Mandaue.
Cebu City North and South districts representatives Tomas Osmena and Marguerite del Mar respectively gave P1,000 to P8,000 cash donations to the115 families from the Mahiga creek through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7) in the region.
Each of the affected families formerly residing along the river banks of Mahiga river received P5,000 from Osmena and additional P3,000 from del Mar.
In similar development, legislator del Mar also released another P1,000 each to the 83 displaced families from Raja Jumabon St. at the North Reclamation Area.