At four months old, Ziggy Intal was in and out of the hospital in 2022. He was initially diagnosed and treated for pneumonia, but recurring symptoms of fever and cough led his physicians to test him for tuberculosis.
They first did a skin test and an X-ray. Then they did a sputum or phlegm test that revealed he has multidrug-resistant TB or MDR-TB, a more serious form of the disease that can’t be treated with standard TB drugs isoniazid and rifampicin and requires a long treatment period of 15 months.
The Philippines has one of the highest numbers of people with TB, accounting for 7% of the global burden. The government recorded 612,002 cases of TB last year, up from 435,890 in 2022. MDR-TB cases stood at 6,911. Children account for 1.7% of the MDR-TB burden in the country, up from 1.3% in 2022.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
