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.
COVID-19 is projected to require a massive inventory of medical supplies. This was the impetus for the UP College of Medicine to spearhead SIBOL (Tagalog for germination), a project which aims to use locally sourced material and technology to produce much needed surgical and medical devices. This is a joint program with UP Diliman and sponsored by Department of Science & Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research & Development (DOSTPCHRD). The S.I.B.O.L. (Surgical Innovation and Biotechnology) Team includes collaborating clinicians from UP Manila and engineers, scientists, and even artists from UP Diliman.
The UP Manila NIH was the first facility to use the GenAmplifyTM, Covid 19 testing kit rRT-PCR developed by Dr. Raul Destura and researchers from the NIH and Philippine Genome Center (PGC). The mass distribution of the kits started on April 20, 2020 according to the Department of Science and Technology which gave P53.2M for the development of this. Its use was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on April 3 after three weeks of field validation that covered 26,000 tests. Other institutions such as the PGC, Bataan General Hospital, Araneta Foundation, Office of the Vice President, and some local governments have availed of the kits, the DOST stated.
