President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. wants the Department of Health to prioritize the campaign against the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV and tuberculosis amid the still ongoing fight against Covid-19.

"Let's start refocusing again on the general public health concerns," Marcos told Health officials in a meeting in Malacañang Palace on Tuesday.

"Of course, Covid-19 has not come away. We still have to deal with it but let's not deal with Covid at the expense of all these other public health concerns," he added.

The Office of the Press Secretary said the President asked Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire about the agency's TB-DOTS program aimed at eradicating tuberculosis in the country.

Vergeire told the President that the DoH has become more innovative and is now going around the country to launch a primary care program that includes TB-DOTS.

She revealed that tuberculosis has reemerged because of its high transmissibility, with the disease usually affecting people from the lower income brackets of society.

Resistant cases

There is a lot of multi-drug resistant cases of TB because people can still buy anti-TB medicines over the counter, she warned.

"So, for example, they have prescriptions that will be given by doctors who just need them… medicines for just one, two months, they will not finish their medicines and they become resistant," Vergeire said.