REVIEW SESSION # 8

Health Institutions
The famous quotation, “health is wealth,” has been a popular expression especially
among people who value health as one thing they can be proud about. It is a worldwide
acceptance that health is precious and priceless but for some, it is taken for granted
until debilitating illness comes forth that members of the society have to act in aid of
saving lives and enabling a safe and healthful living conditions.
The Department of Health has this vision for the Philippines by 2030 into becoming
a “A global leader for attaining better health outcomes, competitive and responsive
health care system, and equitable health financing.” Also, with the DOH Mission, “To
guarantee equitable, sustainable and quality health for all Filipinos, especially the poor,
and to lead the quest for excellence in health.” All these are but manifestations that the
State considers health as its major concern. This response as part of the government
program on maintaining health and avoidance of sickness gives every citizen the
accorded treatment as people decide for themselves how health services may be given
or may be availed of. It implies an institution with the interplay of norms, values,
statuses, and roles that comprise the aforesaid government agency. The concepts that
refer to health which are so impressed with public interest can be described to mean it
is socially organized. Thus, medicine is an institution concerned with the maintenance of
health and treatment of diseases. (Robertson, 1987:425).
Whatever culture or society to which one belongs, people get sick and they
eventually die at some point. However, how members of society perceive such
phenomena is greatly dependent upon culture (Newman, 2012). A society’s perception
of such events, like sickness and death, reflect how it rationalizes the order of things and
relationships (Tan, 1987). The same is true with how these realities are dealt with
(Newman, 2012; Tan, 1987).
Illness and Diseases
Disease “refers to a specific pathology” while illness “refers to the meaning and
elaboration given to a particular physical state (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, and McBride,
2008: 291-2). Since illness is more elaborative, it leads oftentimes to a cultural context
that some of the illnesses are described to be more cultural and local (in the Philippines,
the examples are pasma, usog and kulam). These culture based illnesses are not
prevalent in other countries. Diseases are different for it is a medical term having to do
with a diagnosis on a specific causative agent, scientifically explaining the signs and
symptoms and the predisposing factors and other related medical terms. Specifically,
categories of diseases are:
Endemic disease - It affects a large part of the population. Example: Dysentery in
Africa and India due to food and water contamination.
Epidemic Diseases - A significant part of a population is affected, wherein the
disease is normally uncommon to the people and area. Ex. Influenza surging through
population and those infected are usually a high number until this disease diminishes in
time.
Chronic Disease - this type lasts for a long time and usually the victim may or may
not die but often does not recover. Examples are diabetes and arthritis.
Acute Disease - a type of short-duration disease, the victim either recovers from it
dies fast. Examples are measles (when contracted by children may be life-threatening)
and common colds, SARS and other infectious diseases.
Diseases are also communicable (infectious) or non-communicable (non-infectious).
The modes of transmission may either be through insects as vectors or carriers causing
malaria, Dengue or filariasis carried by Anopheles and Aedes egypti mosquitoes
respectively, direct contact as those contracted when one passes by hands the common
colds virus and indirect contact by an airborne transmission such as leprosy, chicken pox
and small pox. Diseases can also be transmitted through sneezing and coughing as it
creates vapors in the air and can also be transmitted through using syringes used by
AIDS patients. Its spread depends upon the people who become vectors or carriers of
the disease, spreading at faster rate in a big population where there is closer contact
and at such time that the convalescent period or healing begins.
Social Impact:
Family, the community and the society are affected by diseases because it entails
discomfort, pain, anxiety, confinement, and even death. This does not only extend to
families but also it affects the communities especially when a contagious disease
becomes widespread (endemic or epidemic). Usually, sick people become invalidated
and at times becomes a burden to society that sometimes they are abandoned or being
left without care. Mother Theresa of Calcutta India once said, “The greatest disease in
the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for.”
she further posited, “We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for
loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying
for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the
West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of
spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
(https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/139677-the-greatest-disease-in-the-west-today-
is-not-tb)
Diagnosis, Prevention and Healing: A System
The Department of Health is clear by its vision that it shall attain a competitive and
responsive health care system. All societies have health-care systems, consisting of
beliefs, customs, and techniques that ensure the health of their members (Kottak,
2000:591). These health-care systems also include the prevention, diagnosis, and cure of
illnesses (Kottak, 2000:591). There are different types of health-care systems:
traditional, Western, and scientific, among others (Kottak, 2000:591). All these types can
be availed of by the individual simultaneously. In the Philippines, due to higher costs of
medicines and hospitalization, people resort to folk healing (albularyo) and use of herbal
medicines (through herbolarios). It shows how high costs of medical services in the
country affects the economic wants and needs of the people. Republic Act No. 9502 or
the “Cheaper Medicine Act” is one way the government addresses these needs and
wants for low-cost but quality generic drugs.
Health Needs: A Human Right
A functionalist truism that healthy citizens become productive members of society
makes health a basic right (Magstadt, 2013). However not all societies can provide
universal health care to its citizens. Only post-industrial and developed states like the
US, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain can provide basic health care to their citizens
(Magstadt, 2013). In the Philippines, private medical health providers such as the
Maxicare and Fortune Care provide basic health care although with salary deduction as
payments for an insurance premium. On the other hand, the government provides
support through the PhilHealth and Medicare, cheaper medicine packages through
legislation, especially to elderly patients suffering from chronic or lingering diseases,
such as cancer, diabetes, and other coronary and metabolic illnesses.
In considering health as a social institution, the State has a great role in providing an
improved basic health services to its people through immunization, vaccination and
medical research to counteract evolving and pernicious diseases. Only then with the
commitment of the state in furthering and enhancing its health services can it achieve
the vision and mission of its health program.
Copyright © 2017