Press Release
October 4, 2008

People's health essential to nation's productivity -- Loren

"A triumph for newborn."

That's how Senator Loren Legarda described the proposed Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention law which was approved on the third and final reading in the Senate a few days back..

The proposed Senate Bill No. 2390, according to Legarda, is anchored on the policy of the State to protect and promote the right to health of the people, including the rights of children to survival, full and healthy development as individuals.

"For the health of the people is essential to the nation's productivity," said Legarda, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Health.

"Other countries have been giving strong considerations to people's health, particularly of children, to globally competitive, hence we should take a leaf from them," she added.

Loren said the proposed law was culled from the report prepared by the joint committees on Health and Demography, and Finance ca-authored by Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Pia Cayetano.

Loren said the proposed law seeks to put in place a hearing screening program for the newborns so that all the newborns diagnosed with hearing loss can be given appropriate and timely treatment.

Under the proposed law, the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program (UNHSP) would be established to institutionalize measures for the prevention and early diagnosis of congenital hearing loss among newborns.

"The provision of follow-up, referral, recall and early intervention services to infants with hearing loss, and counselling and other support services for families of newborns with hearing loss will be afforded to assure that they would become productive members of the society," Legarda explained.

Toward this goal, Legarda said the law will mandate healthcare practitioner who delivers, or assists in the delivery, of a newborn in the Philippines, prior to delivery, to inform the parents or legal guardian of the newborn of the availability, nature and benefits of hearing loss screening among newborns or infants three months old and below.

"In essence, the law makes it mandatory for the every health practitioner to take the initiative of informing the mother of the need for her baby to be subjected to test," Legarda added.

The law will also call for the establishment of Newborn Screening Centers to undertake hearing loss screening, audiologic diagnostic evaluation and recall, follow-up and referral programs to infants with hearing loss.

The Department of Health (DOH), Legarda said, will act as the lead agency in implementing the provisions of the measure.

"The DOH may have to develop a program for the rehabilitation of deaf children through available intervention services, therapies, and such other services necessary for a patient diagnosed with hearing disorders," she said.

Legarda said the counterpart measure at the Lower house is awaiting action from the Committee on Appropriations.

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