KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/12 May) – Residents here have been warned to be extra cautious in dealing with dog bites following the death last week of  a resident in Barangay Balindog due to rabies. Rubber tapper Samson Dayanan, 49, was bitten by one of their puppies sometime in March, his wife Malou said. Malou said the [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/23 February) – The provincial government of South Cotabato has linked up with a local non-government organization to help provide cheaper medicine packages for various surgical and medical needs of poor residents in the area. South Cotabato Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr. said they forged an agreement with the Dole Philippines-funded Mahintana Foundation [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/1 Feb) – Freelance sex workers are dramatically growing in number in Surigao City, leading to an increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in 2011 compared to the previous year. Despite the campaign to stem the cases of sex-related diseases, cases of gonorrhea and trichomoniasis among commercial sex workers in the city went [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/20 Oct) – Health officials in Sarangani have warned residents in a diarrhea-stricken village in Maasim town against drinking from all water sources in the area due to coliform bacteria contamination. “All sources of water within Barangay Tinoto are not fit for drinking purposes,” Dr. Antonio Yasana, provincial health officer, said in [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/24 August)  – The city government has intensified its campaign for the immediate diagnosis and treatment of suspected dengue cases in a bid to address the rising number of dengue deaths in the city this year that already reached 10 cases. Dr. Mely Lastimoso, epidemiology and surveillance head of the City Integrated [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/15 July) – Leptorpirosis is the new problem flooded communities may to face after the water had subsided, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said. Ona told MindaNews the flooded areas especially those with high rat populations are prone to the disease. The cities of Davao and Cotabato and other areas of Mindanao had experienced [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/12 July) — Some 5.2 million families in the country have not enrolled with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Department of Health Secretary Enrique Ona said here Tuesday. Ona said this is the reason for the holding of the summit of health care professionals here for the “Universal Health Care” [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/17 June) – Dengue cases in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao have dropped by at least 78 percent in the last five months but regional health authorities are not slowing down anytime soon with their intensified campaign against the deadly virus. Dr. Alah Baby Vingno, regional epidemeology and surveillance unit (RESU) coordinator [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/11 June) — The Bukidnon Provincial Health Office is spearheading the formation of a Bukidnon multi-sectoral alliance for the control of tuberculosis in the province. Dr. Teresita G. Damasco, provincial health officer, said they are holding consultations in line with the move to create the alliance, a measure prescribed by the Department of [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/30 May) – Schistosomiasis is endemic in 53 of Bukidnon’s 464 barangays with five of these villages having an infection rate of at least 10 percent, according to a report released by the Department of Health Bukidnon Schistosomiasis Control Office. This number is 15.2-percent more than the 46 barangays recorded in 2006, when [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/24 May) – The Department of Health can control schistosomiasis in Bukidnon with the help of the community using a mix of ways with emphasis on mass treatment, Dr. Ricardo Reyes, DOH provincial health team leader said. He said there is a need to focus on mass treatment as an intervention to address [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/22 May) –  The City Health Office here has recorded seven new cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immunodeficiency Acquired Syndrome (HIV-AIDS),  from January this year, bringing to 35 the number of cases recorded since 1995,  Dr. Rodel Agbulos, City Health Officer, said. Of the 35 cases, Agbulos said 17 were recorded from 1995 [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/20 May) — If voting on the controversial Reproductive Health Bill were done now, it will muster at least 123 votes in the 285-member House of Representatives, Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan of the Gabriela party-list, said. As of their latest count, 123 have already registered their support for House Bill 4244 or [...]

TAGAYTAY CITY (MindaNews/20 May) –  The negative public attitude towards persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) such as discrimination and stigmatization, is a major challenge facing health workers in curbing  the deadly disease in the country, experts said. Dr. Susan Gregorio, acting chief of the Philippine National AIDS Council, Inc, lamented the negative attitude [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/17 May) — Despite the nature of their work commercial sex workers in General Santos City have so far been free of the dreaded human immunodeficiency virus- acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS), according to Dr. Mely Lastimoso of the City Integrated Health Services Office. Lastimoso, however, qualified that only those commercial workers [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/15 May) –  The Bukidnon Provincial Board has passed a resolution requesting the World Health Organization (WHO) to intervene and provide financial assistance for the rehabilitation of the Matin-ao Spring Resort in Bangcud, Malaybalay City to “contain and eliminate schistosomiasis.” The resolution sponsored by lawyer Nemesio Beltran Jr., last Wednesday seeks the assistance [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/10 May) – The Province of Bukidnon has a lackluster record in detecting tuberculosis cases. It is, in fact, at the bottom in Northern Mindanao with only a 55-percent case detection rate (CDR) compared to the national cut-off of 70 percent. “This is an alarming situation that deserves full attention considering that the [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/9 May) – The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Southern Mindanao’s budget for medicine is so small that it can only fork out P3 per prisoner per day whereas ideally, each inmate should be provided P5 a day. Avelina Delmar, chief of the health service division of BJMP-XI, said the inmates [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 February) – Hospitals and wellness centers here offer the country’s cheapest dialysis treatment, but a medical director of an upstart wellness center also warned of the increasing number of kidney patients, including many diabetics. Hospitals and medical centers would charge P1,950 for a two to three times a week treatment to a [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/05 February) – An environmentalist-lawyer has urged legislators in North Cotabato to  look into the province’s Environment Code before they allow the field testing of a genetically-modified eggplant inside a state-owned university in Kabacan town. In a forum on Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) Talongat the provincial capitol, lawyer Lilibeth Aruelo of the Third World [...]

SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/23 January) – There were fewer cases of sexually transmitted infections  here in 2010 compared with the previous year, records from the City Health Office showed. Cases of gonorrhea, bacterial vaginosis, and other transmitted diseases went down in 2010. The City Health Office attributed this to its relentless campaign to stem the spread [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 January) — Competent, volunteer nurses working for free and new nursing graduates undergoing training to enter the profession are two separate issues that should be treated separately, an official of a government hospital here said. Dr. Leopoldo Vega, head of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), however said the government hospital does [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 January)—A health official here assured the country’s biggest government hospital is equipped to handle diagnosis and treatment of highly contagious diseases like meningococcemia. Dr. Leopoldo Vega, head of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), gave the assurance in the wake of reports that the death of a 10-month-old boy Friday was caused [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 Dec) ¬- City Hall has asked the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) to revoke the permit of the University of the Philippines (UP) in Mindanao to conduct the field testing of the genetically-modified eggplants in the city. Mayor Sara Duterte said UP Mindanao failed to notify the city about the conduct of the field tests, a crucial requirement in the Department of Agriculture Administrative Order 8 governing the conduct of the field trials.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 December) — Amid loud cheers from organic farmers and people opposed to Bt eggplant, UP Mindanao complied late afternoon Friday with Mayor Sara Duterte’s order to have  the genetically-modified crop uprooted from the field test site near the entrance to the campus for reportedly failing to conduct consultations with the city and [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/11 Dec) – The University of the Philippines (UP) professor who headed the Bt Eggplant field testing here lashed back at critics, saying there is nothing to be scared of the Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt), the soil bacterium inserted in the eggplant genes by Indian scientists to produce Bt Eggplant. “Bacillus Thuringiensis is a [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / November 20) – Cotton fabrics dyed with extracts from eight tropical plants have been found to combat pneumonia and abscess-causing bacteria, according to a study conducted by the Philippine Textile Research Institute at the Department of Science and Technology (PTRI-DOST). The study showed that fabrics dyed with these extracts could actually [...]

VALENCIA CITY (MindaNews/16 Nov) – The chair of the Department of Health’s mosquito-borne disease program in Bukidnon, proposed in 2009 the inclusion in the provincial budget of at least P6 million for dengue prevention and control but claimed it was disapproved. She said they reflected it in the Provincial Integrated Plan for Health (PIHP), which [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/07 November) — The use of mercury in Mindanao’s health sector has waned although it still failed to beat the passing mark, an international coalition working for a better health care sector globally, said. In a forum here participated by medical authorities, Faye V. Ferrer, Health Care Without Harm – Southeast Asia [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 October) – Field testing of the genetically-modified eggplant will reportedly start this month but residents in Barangay Oshiro, where the field tests will take place, complain they have been kept blind about the tests. Jonah Macarayo, barangay captain of Bago Oshiro, said that contrary to what the University of the Philippines in [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/12 October) – Health officials here warned anew residents against the dangers posed by the dreaded Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV infection after two more local residents recently tested positive of the disease. Dr. Mely Lastimoso, coordinator of the City Integrated Health Services Office’s Social Hygiene Clinic, said two male patients from [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 October)—Pro-Life advocates are questioning an August 19 memorandum from the Department of Education here requiring 14-year-old girls in public schools to submit to tetanus toxoid vaccination. Retired Judge Melchor Quitain questioned a memorandum signed by Helen D. Paguican, DepEd schools division superintendent, asking secondary school principals, school administrators, health and nutrition section [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/05 October) – Government resources were better spent on fighting the unabated rise in dengue cases than on promoting reproductive health-related programs especially the use of contraceptives, a leader of the Catholic Church here said. Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez of the Diocese of Marbel today said the continuing spread of the deadly dengue [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/05 October) – Less than 200 of the 46,000 PhilHealth beneficiaries who were identified as the poorest of the poor in Southern Mindanao came to claim their health cards over the weekend. Filbert Bryan Sollesta, PhilHealth division chief IV, said only 172 of the indigents already listed in the national household targeting system [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/02 October) – A hundred indigents from Kidapawan City in North Cotabato received from the Department of Health (DOH) in Southwestern Mindanao (Region 12) health insurance cards during the nationwide launching today of Philhealth Sabado, one of the flagship health projects of the Aquino administration which aims to give the poorest of the [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/30 Sept) – The Department of Health (DOH) is working for the establishment of a regional treatment center for tuberculosis in Koronadal City to help effectively address the growing cases of the disease in Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao. Heidi Florentin, TB program coordinator of South Cotabato, said the DOH and partner [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/30 Sept) – The Department of Health (DOH) in Southwestern Mindanao (Region 12) is targeting 49,000 indigent families for the nationwide registration day for membership in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) on Saturday. Dr. Abdullah Dumama, DoH-12 director, said the figure was taken from the National Households Targeting System for Poverty Reduction [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/29 September) – Bukidnon Gov. Alex P. Calingasan refuted reports that dengue cases and deaths caused by the viral disease this year have increased to alarming levels. He said the real story is how the many “unsung heroes” in the municipalities and barangays have responded to the outbreak of the disease in late [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/28 September) – Some 3,500 school children in South Cotabato were chosen as beneficiaries for the fourth phase of the province’s anti-malnutrition initiative Kapit-Bisig Para sa Kabataan project. Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr. said they decided to continue with the project’s implementation this year in a bid to further lower the prevalence rate [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/27 September) – An open letter to Bukidnon legislators published in a social networking site about the intensity of the dengue fever problem in the province has elicited reactions and may have exposed a latent political tension in this rich agricultural province. Dr. Janet Q. Molina, in an open letter posted in Facebook, [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 September) – Patients at the Southern Philippines’ Medical Center (SPMC) will soon say goodbye to long queues for records and billings. The SPMC is now on the final phase of its health information system for easier access of hospital records and quicker processing of medical billings. Dr. Leopoldo Vega, SPMC chief of [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/22 September) – Dr. Dante Douglas Belderol, a physician at the Malaybalay City Health Office, is proposing some clever methods of fighting the mosquito-borne viral disease dengue. Belderol, the dengue point person of the Rural Health Unit, said one way is to put up “official” breeding areas to attract the mosquitoes and then [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/22 September) – Dr. Dante Douglas Belderol, a physician at the Malaybalay City Health Office, is proposing some clever methods of fighting the mosquito-borne viral disease dengue. Belderol, the dengue point person of the Rural Health Unit, said one way is to put up “official” breeding areas to attract the mosquitoes and then [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY  (MindaNews/16 Sept) -– Bukidnon-based surgeon Dr. Janet Molina wrote an open letter to senators and members of the House of Representatives from Bukidnon to use their offices to cause concrete measures to address the high volume of dengue cases in the province. Molina, with a copy of the letter posted on Facebook, wrote [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/14 September) – Pupils and teachers of North Cotabato’s biggest elementary school have agreed to contribute small amounts for a sanitation drive that aims to counter the rising number of dengue cases in the school. Each pupil of the Kidapawan City Pilot Elementary School will give 25 centavos per week and the teachers [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/9 Sept) – Health authorities here recorded three new confirmed deaths due to dengue fever since last week, bringing the number of confirmed fatalities due to the mosquito-borne disease to nine. A report from the City Integrated Health Services Office (CIHSO) said three young children from separate dengue-hit villages in the city [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/06 September) – Health personnel in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces will launch joint border operations against malaria later this month to further reduce the cases of malaria infections in the two areas. Jose Barroquillo, South Cotabato malaria control program coordinator, said the health offices of the two provinces specifically agreed [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/24 Aug) – The Bukidnon provincial health office has recommended the creation and institutionalization of the provincial epidemiology surveillance unit for the early detection of diseases, a report on the dengue situation in the province to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan said. Dr. Teresita Damasco, the provincial health officer, proposed the provision of logistics, manpower, [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/23 August) — Health personnel here have intensified their anti-dengue fumigation activities as dengue cases in various parts of the city continue to rise. Dr. Lalaine Calonzo, assistant chief of the City Integrated Health Services office (CIHSO), said they have been conducting fumigation or fogging operations almost daily in selected areas in [...]

COTAB ATO CITY (MindaNews/23 August) — The health department in the region is alarmed with the widespread dengue cases that have left 34 people dead, most of them children. Dr. Abdullah Dumama, chief of the Department of  Health in Region 12 (Southwestern Mindanao), said they are “alarmed with the figures we have now, but things [...]