The ASCENT project in the Philippines
The Philippines is one of the five countries where the ASCENT project is implemented. Over 90 health care facilities in the Bulacan Province, Pampanga Province and the National Capital Region are participating in the project. Patients and health care workers will make use of digital adherence technologies to support the former upon taking their daily TB medication at home, at work, or any venue of their choice. The first patients will be enrolled in 2020.
The Philippines has a population of 107 million people and is one of the 30 high TB burden countries in the world, as listed by the World Health Organization (WHO Global Tuberculosis Report,2019). In 2018, an estimated 591,000 people suffered from TB in the Philippines, giving a TB incidence rate of 554 per 100,000 population. An estimated 18,000 people suffered from multidrug-resistant TB. The WHO estimates 27,000 people died of TB in the Philippines.
news & Stories from the Philippines
ASCENT Philippines and partners prepare for scale-up and handover of the DAT intervention
With the ASCENT project ending on 31 December 2022, the ASCENT Philippines team held separate meetings with key partners in the Philippines to prime them for the scale-up of DAT implementation.
Photo story from the Philippines: 5 patients enroll in ASCENT study
In March 2022, Richard Clores, the nurse who attends to drug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB) patients at the Bulacan Medical Center PMDT satellite treatment center in Bulacan province, Philippines, enrolled five patients in the use of digital adherence technology (DAT).
German newspaper Die Zeit writes about TB and digital adherence technology
Dr. Jakob Simmank, the head of the health section of Die Zeit, an online newspaper in Hamburg, Germany, is preparing an article on the fight against tuberculosis (TB), including the use of digital adherence technology (DAT) for TB treatment.
Governor Fernando of Bulacan, Philippines signed MOU on World TB Day
Bulacan, Philippines celebrated World TB Day 2022 with Governor Daniel Fernando signing the Memorandum of understanding (MOU) between KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and the Department of Health of the Philippines.