The University of the Philippines Manila and National Institutes of Health Technical Working Group submitted to the National Economic Development Authority on March 30 a position statement on the “Urgent Scaling-up Needs for a National Coordinated Response for the Covid 19 Pandemic Whole-of-Society Approach.”
The statement was based on the collective inputs and wide-ranging experiences and expertise of key representatives from different UP Manila colleges and component units of the NIH and is an update to a previously issued statement dated Feb. 4, 2020.
The statement reiterated UP Manila’s and NIH’s strong support to the current initiatives of the Philippine government and recognition of the role of the Department of Health (DOH) in the control and management of the disease.
Apart from supporting the DOH Circular 2020-0049 on the general guidelines for health facilities for COVID-19, the national health university is urging the following additional measures: for hospital staff to also practice physical isolation even during mealtimes and be tested every three weeks, for DOH-identified COVID-19 referral hospitals to be provided funds in converting existing facilities to handle expanded numbers of intensive care unit patients in terms of structural improvement, additional equipment, supplies, and trained manpower; and an intercity-wide service delivery network for the sharing of medical personnel in order to meet the “1-week duty with 2-weeks off” rotation of health workers which requires a round-the-clock Infectious Disease and Pulmonary specialist in all COVID-19 cases.
The health experts of UP Manila also called on DOH to ensure the use of only FDA-approved test kits and full compliance with biosafety procedures. They are asking the health department to collaborate with academe/research institutes to assess the cost effectiveness of expanding facility based molecular test kits vs. standalone (point of care) test kits, vs. rapid test kits, or a combination thereof.
As of DOH’s March 31 announcement, five kinds of Covid 19 rapid test kits have been approved by the FDA on March 30. The rapid test kit detects the presence of antibodies that may not be present in the early stage of the infection, thus, it needs confirmatory testing as compared to the Polymerase Chain Reaction test that detects the presence of the virus.
The FDA has also announced its approval of the GenAmplifyTM Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) RT-PCR Detection Kit, the first locally-made, PCR-based test kit for commercial use. It was developed by a team of NIH scientists led by Dr. Raul V. Destura with funding from the Department of Science and Technology. According to the DOH, the mass testing of suspected COVID-19 cases that will use this kit will start on April 14 to prioritize Persons Under Investigation and Persons Under Monitoring.
The Manila Health Tek, Inc. reported that the first batch of reagents had arrived which will enable them to start manufacturing the test kits that can accommodate up to 120,000 tests. A certain number of testing kits that can do up to 26,000 tests is being prioritized by the DOST for field implementation and distribution to the Philippine General Hospital, Makati Medical Center, The Medical City, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Southern Philippines Medical Center, and Baguio General Hospital.
As per the statement, also being recommended for immediate formulation by the DOH is an algorithm for the clinical diagnosis and management of COVID-19 patients for use by physicians in the country following the latest Philippine Society of Microbiology and Infectious Disease guidelines (2020), specially for level 1 and 2 hospitals and rural health units.
For a projected surge in the number of cases in the next weeks due to the planned mass testing, the statement enjoined the DOH and the national government to increase the stock of ICU beds, mechanical ventilators, and antivirals.
It further urged DOH to ramp up local COVID-19 clinical trials and consider allowing limited compassionate use of off-label but potentially effective medicines being studied by the Chinese, Japanese, American, and French national ministries of health.
