At risk for TB? City says act early

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

Health authorities are urging high-risk groups, including children and household contacts of tuberculosis patients, to undergo preventive therapy before the disease becomes active.

The Iloilo City Health Office (CHO) said preventive therapy directly targets latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) by eliminating dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria and preventing progression to active, contagious tuberculosis disease.

Ms. Ma. Estrella Fortuna, National Tuberculosis Program coordinator of the CHO, said LTBI occurs when an individual is infected with tuberculosis but shows no symptoms, cannot spread the disease to others, and has normal chest X-rays with negative sputum tests.

Fortuna said high-risk groups that can avail themselves of tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT) include household contacts of tuberculosis patients, people living with human immunodeficiency virus, children younger than 5, and individuals with immunosuppression.

“All of us can start TPT because we do not know who we are interacting with. If you are exposed for three months to someone with TB, you can be infected, so we should have TPT,” she said on Monday, March 30.

“We are pushing for the TPT because why wait for you to have active TB disease if you can prevent it early on?” she added.

Tuberculosis preventive therapy involves specific antibiotic regimens designed to eliminate dormant bacteria and prevent progression to active disease, with treatment lasting from one to six months depending on the regimen.

The therapy is offered free of charge in the city’s nine district health centers.

Fortuna emphasized that strengthening prevention efforts can also help reduce stigma associated with tuberculosis.

“TB is curable and preventable. If Iloilo City unites, we can end TB,” she emphasized.

The CHO continues to conduct active case finding across districts by coordinating with barangay officials and deploying mobile chest X-ray services to communities.

Patients diagnosed with tuberculosis are monitored by barangay health workers, while district-level tuberculosis task forces oversee treatment compliance and outcomes.

She also clarified that tuberculosis patients who have been on medication for at least two weeks are no longer contagious.

“That is the stigma that we want to clear. No need to change the utensils of our TB patients because once medicines are taken religiously, then they will not be contagious in other household contacts,” she stressed.

Data from the CHO showed a 93 percent treatment success rate, with 2,605 out of 2,790 enrolled tuberculosis cases either cured or having completed treatment.

Fortuna said the remaining cases include deaths, patients who transferred, those who could no longer be traced, and those lost to follow-up.