BARMM agency to pay for treatment of dengue patients

COTABATO CITY — The health ministry of the Bangsamoro region shall pay for all medicines and bills of marginalized dengue patients confined in different government hospitals under its jurisdiction.

The physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Monera Sinolinding Jr., Bangsamoro regional health minister, told reporters on Tuesday, September 17, that they have a special program, dubbed Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients, or MAIFIP, that has funds earmarked for medication of dengue patients in the autonomous region.

“This program is a tie-up initiative of the Ministry of Health, its provincial offices and government hospitals in the autonomous region,” Sinolinding, also a concurrent member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, said.

Sinolinding said the program is also supported by the office of BARMM Regional Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim.

Personnel of the MoH-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had recorded 122 dengue cases in the provinces in BARMM and in its three component-cities, Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, in recent weeks.

Physicians in MoH-BARMM and nurses are once again busy disseminating to local residents how they could protect themselves from the mosquito-borne dengue infection.

The campaign is also focused on educating BARMM residents on how to effectively prevent the spread of dengue-carrier mosquitoes in their villages.