A BILL seeking the creation of the Philippine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has been filed by Sen. Richard Gordon who said government needs to be prepared for health threats.
Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, said on Wednesday it is “in the nation’s interest for the Philippines to join the global fight in combating infectious diseases and other potential health threats by creating an independent and competent national Center for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The proposed creation is contained in Senate Bill No. 1440 which was filed amid government efforts to fight the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Sen. Grace Poe filed a similar bill on Tuesday. Poe’s SB 1450, or the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act, seeks to create a Center for Disease Control to “enhance the country’s expertise in disease prevention.”
In the US, its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the leading national public health institute, and a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services.
Gordon,in SB 1440, said: “With almost 8,000 confirmed cases and a death toll of more than 500 in our country alone, this ongoing pandemic is a dire reminder that communicable and infectious diseases and public health threats respect no borders… the public is increasingly demanding that the government come up with fundamental solutions to address such global and local health threats. Accordingly, the public’s expectations are growing for the government’s crucial role in increasing health security.”
The proposed national center will be attached to the Department of Health for policy and program coordination. It will be the country’s principal health protection agency tasked to prevent, protect and manage the spread of diseases and other health threats originating domestically and internationally.
It shall be the country’s epidemiology and surveillance body which will develop and maintain a network of reference and specialized laboratories for pathogen detection, disease surveillance, and outbreak response and will strengthen diagnostic capacity for and laboratory surveillance of infectious diseases, among others.
