According to researchers from University of the Philippines Manila who are conducting the clinical trial for the use of lagundi as herbal medicine in the management of mild COVID-19 cases, the plant brings “symptomatic relief” to patients without co-morbidities. Studies on the use of tawa-tawa as herbal supplement also yielded positive results.
The University of the Philippines Manila-National Institutes of Health, in partnership with the DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute, will be conducting research that will “determine the association of body composition with the functional capacity and quality of life of older persons in selected regions in the country.”
To help protect children with comorbidities against COVID-19, the Philippine General Hospital will be joining other government hospitals in administering vaccines that have secured Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to children ages 12-17.
The Ear Unit of the Philippine National Ear Institute resumes its operations and has taken the necessary precautions to ensure unhampered service delivery and the safety of infants who will be undergoing hearing screening.
UP health experts weigh in on how vaccine hesitancy contributes to the mutation and formation of variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The UP Surgical Innovation and Biotechnology Laboratory (UP SIBOL) is composed of engineers from the state university’s Diliman campus and clinicians from its Manila campus, who have come together to develop Filipino-made health devices.
On 11 June 2020, the UP College of Nursing (UPCN) received the good news that it was re-designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Leadership in Nursing Development from 2020 to 2024.
In the next four years, the College will work to assist the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office to provide technical assistance to Member States in building the leadership capacity of nursing and midwifery workforce, in strengthening training in nursing, and in developing e-learning resources in community health nursing and chronic care.
True to its role as a leading research university responding to the health problems and needs of Filipinos, UP Manila’s early response to the Covid pandemic was the development of the first RT-PCR local testing kit for the Covid-19 virus. The kit was developed by Dr. Raul Destura, an infectious disease specialist who is UP Manila NIH Director of National Training Center for Biosafety and Biosecurity and the Deputy Director of Philippine Genome Center. The development of the testing kit has proven that even in a resource-limited setting such as the Philippines, an appropriate technology can be done in a few weeks in response to a health emergency, providing a concrete example of the capabilities of the local science and technology environment.
Part of the UP Manila response to The Covid 19 pandemic is conducting researches on topics related to the virus. As of 18 May 2020, the total number of researches done is 110.
THE COVID-19 pandemic has the world’s medical minds ardently pursuing a cure for this virus. So far, no clear effective treatment has emerged. Because of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) is embarking on a worldwide Solidarity Trial. This is an international randomized clinical trial with an adaptive design which aims to estimate the effectiveness of four possible therapies in treating COVID-19.
