UPV alumni group pushes for COVID-19 test centers

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

Realizing the importance of fast testing of suspected cases to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an alumni group from UP Visayas gathered scientists, clinicians, doctors, laboratorians, hospital administrators, and government officials to push for the accreditation of testing centers in Iloilo City.

A news article posted on https://www.upv.edu.ph said IAmUPHi, a group of alumni of the UP High School in Iloilo, led a meeting of experts with Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Trenas and the Iloilo City COVID-19 Task Force headed by Dr. Ray Fortuna at the City Hall on March 16, 2020.

Present in the meeting were members of IAmUPHi led by Atty. Nellie Regalado, representatives from UP Visayas, West Visayas State University, Philippine Science High School Western Visayas, and other stakeholders.

During the meeting, Philippine Genome Center Visayas headed by Prof. Noel Ferriols said Iloilo has Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines at UP Visayas, University of San Agustin, and the Western Visayas Medical Center.

These PCR machines are capable of running COVID-19 Test Kits developed by a team of UP experts headed by Dr. Raul Destura. The test kits are still in the field testing areas.

While the laboratories of UPV, USA and WVMC have the necessary equipment, expertise, and biosafety requirements to run the test, accreditation by the Department of Health is needed before they can start the tests.

Two to three weeks of preparation are also needed to set up the laboratories, the same time that the UP Test Kits will finally be available for use, according to the UPV website report.

But with the travel restriction imposed on Metro Manila, the trip of DOH evaluators to Iloilo City might be affected although community quarantine guidelines exempt persons who are travelling for medical and humanitarian reasons.

Earlier, Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna, focal person of the Iloilo City COVID-19 Task Force, WVMC has submitted its application for accreditation to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

Western Visayas lacks a testing facility for COVID-19.

In the country, the RITM, with the assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO) has been capacitating five subnational laboratories for diagnosing COVID-19:

-San Lazaro Hospital and Lung Center of the Philippines in Manila

-Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center in Northern Luzon

-Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu, City and

-Southern Philippines Medical Center in Mindanao.

Mayor Jerry Treñas also supported the call for accreditation of WVMC, adding that the long period of referrals and testing of the samples can be a huge concern in the region.

“We have no accredited hospitals here in the region. Once I exhibit the signs, I will have to go through the health center, then to the hospital until my specimen will be sent to Manila or Cebu for testing. I have to wait for several days again for the result of my tests. It’s a very long process,” he lamented on Tuesday.