Programs and Services in the Prevention of Communicable and Non Communicable

Disease

Primary Health Center is the first contact point between the village, community
and the medical officer. It provides curative, preventive, provide accessible,
affordable, available primary health care and promotive services to the people. Its
objective is to provide comprehensive primary health care to the community at
PHCs., achieve and maintain an acceptable standards of quality of care, and make
the services more responsive and sensitive to the need of the community. The
function of PHC includes: provision of medical care, maternal-child health
including family planning, safe water supply and basic sanitation, prevention and
control of locally endemic diseases, collection and reporting of vital statistics,
education about health, national health programmes, as relevant, referral services,
training of health guides, health workers, local dais and health assistants and
basic laboratory workers.

Family health program is one of the essential health care programs in the
Philippines. A family health program is one that focuses on maternal and child’s
health, as well as the prevention and early detection and treatment of communicable
and noncommunicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes. The DOH – Family
Health Office is in charge of putting health programs geared toward family health
into action. It is in charge of developing, implementing, and evaluating health
family programs. The primary objective of the family health program is to improve
the survival, health, and well-being of all members of the family while also
lowering morbidity and mortality rates in the family and community. Maternal Health
Program, Family Planning Program, Child Health Program, Expanded Immunization
Program, Nutrition Program, Oral Health Program, and Other Health Programs are
examples of Family Health Programs.

WHO Philippines Maternal and Child Program works with local public health
departments, community based organizations, statewide organizations and other
providers to provide and/or assure quality health services are delivered to
mothers, children, and families in the country. Maternal Health Program aims to
improve the survival, health and well being of mothers and unborn child. Maternal
Health Services includes: Antenatal Registration pregnant women can avail the free
prenatal services, Tetanus Toxoid Immunization given to women of childbearing age,
vaccines that contain tetanus toxoid not only protect women against tetanus, but
also prevent neonatal tetanus in their newborn infants, Micronutrient
Supplementation where vitamin A and Iron supplement for the prevention of anemia
and Vit. A deficiency and Treatment of diseases and other conditions women who is
diagnosed as under the high risk.

Family Planning Program is a national mandated priority public health program to

attain the country's national health development: a health intervention program and
an important tool for the improvement of the health and welfare of mothers,
children and other members of the family. The goal of this program is to provide
universal access to family planning information and services wherever and whenever
these are needed and also to reduce neonatal, infant, under-five and maternal
deaths. The objective of this program is to help couples and individuals achieve
their desired family size within the context of responsible parenthood and to
improve their reproductive health to attain sustainable growth. There are various
types of family planning, first is the natural, it includes the standard days
method (95% effective), lactational amenorrhea method (99.5% effective), basal body
temperature (99% effective), billings ovulation/cervical mucus method (97%
effective) and symptothermal method (98% effective). And then the artificial, which
includes the condom (99% effective), injectables (99.95% effective), oral
contraceptive pills (99.7% effective), and intrauterine device (99.4% effective).
And lastly is the permanent, which includes vasectomy (99.9% effective) and
bilateral tubal ligation (99.5% effective).

Child Health Programs newborn, infants and children are vulnerable age group for
common childhood diseases. The goal is to reduce morbidity and mortality rates for
children 0 – 9 years with the strategies necessary for program. Breastfeeding,
especially exclusive breastfeeding during the first half-year of life is an
important factor that can prevent infant and childhood morbidity and mortality and
proper complementary feeding will prevent childhood malnutrition. There are laws
that protects infant and young child feeding, such as: Milk code (EO 51), Rooming-
In Breastfeeding Act of 1992 (RA 7600) and Food Fortification Law (RA 8976. Newborn
screening (NBS) is a public health program aimed at the early identification of
infants who are affected by certain genetic/ metabolic/ infectious conditions.
Early identification and timely intervention can lead to significant reduction of
morbidity, mortality, and associated disabilities in affected infants. It is is
ideally done on the 48th – 72nd hour of life. Disorders tested for newborn
screening are the Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH), Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
(CAH), Galactosemia (GAL), Phenylketonuria (PKU) and Glucose-6-Phosphate
Dehydrogenase (G6PD).

Republic Act No. 10152 “Mandatory Infants and Children Health Immunization Act of
2011 signed by President Benigno Aquino III in July 26, 2010. The mandatory
includes basic immunization for children under 5 including other types that will be
determined by the Secretary of Health. Immunization is the process by which
vaccines are introduced into the body before injection sets in and vaccines are
administered to induce immunity thereby causing the recipient’s immune system.
Example of vaccines are BCG, DPV, DPT, etc. Nutrition Program’s goal is to improve
quality of life of Filipinos through better nutrition, improved health and
increased productivity, since malnutrition continues to be a public health concerns
in the country. The common nutritional deficiencies are Vitamin A, Iron and Iodine.
Micronutrient Supplementation is one of the interventions to address the health and
nutritional need of infants and children and improve their growth and survival.
Dental Health Program goal is attainment of improved quality of life through
promotion of oral health and quality, since oral disease continues to be a serious
public health problem in the Philippines.

In conclusion, the family health programs and services are important to improve and
keep family healthy and reduce morbidity and mortality rate. Strengthening the
primary health care is very important since it addresses the health needs of all
patients at the community level, integrating care, prevention, promotion and
education. Primary health care improves the performance of health systems by
lowering overall health care expenditure while improving population health and
access.