Health officials in Central Visayas are doubling efforts to erase the stigma of tuberculosis given the rise in cases, through easy diagnosis, free testing and treatment, an official said on Friday.

Dr. Jaime Bernadas, Department of Health-Central Visayas regional director, said tuberculosis remains a highly infectious disease that needs to be addressed through the help of the entire community.

“Every household in this country may have a person carrying tuberculosis bacilli,” he said in a press conference at the DOH-7’s Center for Health Development here Friday.

Elwin Ivan Uy, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSB) executive director, who attended the press conference, estimates that about 100,000 tuberculosis cases are recorded missing or unreported.

Uy’s organization turned over the KonsuTayo Mobile Van to the regional DOH office to assist in providing chest X-ray, specimen collection, transportation, electrocardiogram (ECG), and other other primary care services to various cities and municipalities in Central Visayas.

In 2023 alone, the DOH recorded a total of 36,000 tuberculosis cases with an 86 percent treatment rate and 37 deaths.

Uy said the most common cause why there were tuberculosis cases that remain undetected is the stigma attached to the disease as felt by the patients and their immediate family members.

“Let’s erase the stigma if only to address the situation. I’m asking your help, the help of the community,” Bernadas said in Cebuano. (PNA)