DATABASES FOR DISEASE CONTROL

DATABASES FOR DISEASE CONTROL

Dear Mr. President: I recently attended a lecture by Dr. Nelia P. Salazar about “Environment and Disease”, sponsored by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), where I learned from her that up to now, the Philippines does not have a fully integrated database for disease control. She said that there are pockets of databases here and there, but there is no data integration between them. As I listened to her presentation, I also learned that through her research works, and the works of many other Filipino scientists like her, we already know what the carriers are, where they are, and how they could be stopped. That is the good news Mr. President, but the bad news is, there appears to be no concerted effort on the part of the government to stop these in advance as a preventive measure.

When I asked Dr. Salazar whether the Philippines already has an equivalent of the American Center for Disease Control (CDC), she answered in the negative. When I asked her whether the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) could be the equivalent of CDC, she also answered in the negative, explaining that RITM is more into training and research, and is not specifically into disease control. However, she clarified that there is already an Office for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control under the DOH, but the scope is lesser than that of the CDC. To me Sir, that is a very alarming realization, because we now know that we do not only lack an integrated database, we also do not have a government agency that is dedicated to disease control, like the CDC.

Looking at this from my perspective, Mr. President, I think that our best action is to pass a new law that would create that local agency for disease control. Once that agency is created, it could take over the ownership and management of the database for disease control. In the meantime, Mr. President, I suggest that the database creation and buildup could be placed under the DOH, specifically under their Management Information Services (MIS) Department.

Although I believe that we have the local expertise that we could use to build the local databases for disease control, I think that it would be more advisable to request the U.S. government for assistance from the American CDC, specifically for redesigning and adopting their existing database software to our local needs. As the saying goes, Mr. President, “there is no need to re-invent the wheel”. If they have a database system that already works there, why not use it here already with some modifications?

If I may suggest Sir, perhaps you could instruct the DFA to contact the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC to in turn contact the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), who will in turn contact the CDC. As a shortcut, the Office of the President (OP) could directly contact the local USAID office here, through the US Embassy in Manila. However it is done Sir, I really think that this must be done as soon as possible, because we do not really know when another epidemic or pandemic will come.

Mr. President, I do not know much about setting up a new government agency like the CDC, but I can assure you that I could help in setting up the database, since that has been my job as the MIS Manager of DFA, NCC, NCIS and PCSO. Aside from myself Sir, I am in touch with many other Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professionals who would gladly volunteer to build these databases for disease control. IKE SENERES/10-14-2024


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