MANILA, Philippines — In  the wake of the recent surge of diseases in the country, Sen. Francis  N. Tolentino pushes  for the creation of the Office of the Surgeon General which will serve as the national spokesperson on all matters relating to public health in the Philippines in a bid to strengthen the country’s health information drive.

In a statement, Tolentino said  he  made this position after learning that a  five-year old boy from Wushan, China who arrived in the country was tested positive for corona virus.

“The recent influx of diseases, such as the still unidentified strain of corona virus originating from Wuhan China, necessitates the need for a proactive government body which focuses on a reliable communication system for disease prevention and control,” said Tolentino, who recently filed Senate Bill no. 1288.

Under the proposed measure, the Office of the Surgeon General, which will be an attached agency of the Department of Health (DOH), shall regularly publish health bulletins and reports on critical public health issues and on the health and fitness of the general public.

Also, information on health hazards in times of emergencies, natural disasters, disease outbreaks and any other exigency shall be coursed through the Surgeon General.

To further ensure better delivery of public-health related information to the people, the measure also seeks to create a public health network which will serve as a forum to discuss critical public health issues, share relevant health information and to monitor and regulate public health concerns.

To be formed under the newly proposed office, the public health network shall be led by the Surgeon General and it shall consist of DOH’s attached agencies, such as the Disease Prevention and Control Bureau and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, health practitioners in the private sector and the medical academe and other national government agencies.

“It is not only the government’s foremost duty to create a policy framework to safeguard its citizens from disease, but also to provide vital and timely information necessary for health awareness,”

Tolentino said, underscoring the gravity of the country’s health challenges last year, which included a dengue outbreak, measles outbreak and resurgence of the deadly polio virus.

The proposed office will be similar to the Office of the Surgeon General of the US, which is America’s leading spokesperson on public health, and shall be different from the Office of the Surgeon General in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the lawmaker added. (STACY  ANG/IAMIGO/Currentph.com)