To eliminate hepatitis B by 2030, we must consider a people-centred approach

By MBrand

At the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July 2026, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. outlined bold commitments to advance Universal Health Care (UHC) in the Philippines. From expanding preventive health benefit packages to broadening financial access to essential outpatient medicines, the administration signaled a renewed resolve to build a healthier nation. Among the most critical battlegrounds in this UHC roadmap is tackling a silent yet deadly public health threat: hepatitis B.

The gravity of this challenge cannot be overstated. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Hepatitis Report 2026 delivers a sobering reality: The Philippines remains among the top 10 nations responsible for nearly 70 percent of all global HBV-related deaths.

As a clinician on the frontline, I see the tragic consequences of this statistic daily. Chronic hepatitis B is a “silent killer.” For years, it damages the liver without any noticeable symptoms. By the time a patient presents with symptoms of jaundice, persistent fatigue, or abdominal swelling, the infection has often progressed to liver cirrhosis or fatal liver cancer.

While recent policy developments point us in the right direction, a fundamental question remains: Are the government’s new strategies enough to achieve the WHO target of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030?

Financial coverage and policy targets are crucial foundations, but money alone will not cure a disease if the healthcare system remains out of reach for the people who need it most. To bridge this gap, we must fundamentally shift our strategy toward a decentralized, people-centered primary healthcare model.

Unlocking a people-centered approach through primary care

For millions of Filipinos living in rural areas, accessing care requires financial and time investment in traveling long hours to metropolitan specialty hospitals. (Photo: Tarlac Provincial Health Office)

Starting in 2027, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) plans to gradually include diagnostic blood testing panels and targeted therapies under its benefit packages to enable early detection of conditions affecting the kidney, liver, thyroid, and hepatitis B. Complemented by the broadened accreditation of clinics under the Yaman ng Kalusugan Program (YAKAP), these measures promise improved access to screening and consultation.

Furthermore, the expansion of the Guaranteed and Accessible Medications for Outpatient Treatment (GAMOT) Program allows eligible PhilHealth members to receive up to ₱20,000 worth of essential outpatient medicines across more than 2,000 accredited providers. Together with the planned expansion of YAKAP benefits for hepatitis B, this financial relief can be life-changing for people living with chronic hepatitis B requiring long-term care.

However, continuous care management requires more than financial subsidies. For millions of Filipinos living in rural areas, accessing care currently means taking unpaid leave, spending limited savings on transportation, and traveling long hours to metropolitan specialty hospitals.

If we are to achieve true accessibility, we must decentralize services by moving from specialist to primary care settings. Integrating hepatitis screening and routine management into the national primary health protection system—making routine testing as common as checking blood pressure or blood glucose at local health centers—will help to strip away systemic friction, normalize screening, and detect infections early.

Proven strategies: Primary care delivers scalable results

The StITCH project leverages a people-centred care model for people living with hepatitis in primary healthcare facilities in the Philippines and Vietnam. (Photo: Tarlac Provincial Health Office)

Skeptics may question whether primary care health centers and health workers can effectively manage a complex disease historically reserved for specialists. However, real-world evidence demonstrates that they not only can but do so with remarkable success.

A landmark proof-of-concept is the Strengthening Integrated Treatment and Care for Hepatitis (StITCH Project), a collaborative initiative involving Gilead Sciences, Harvard Medical School, and the University of the Philippines Manila. Implemented across primary healthcare facilities in the Philippines and Vietnam, StITCH demonstrated the power of empowering trained primary care teams to manage hepatitis B care locally.

The results in the Philippines were compelling: Over 31,000 individuals were screened for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and 72 percent of those who tested positive returned for follow-up care, while 95 percent of patients eligible for treatment initiated it immediately. This people-centred, one-stop primary care approach streamlined the patient journey from blood screening to consultation, shortening the time to linkage to care from more than four months to less than one week.

The takeaway for health administrators and policymakers is undeniable: primary care-led management is not merely an alternative approach. Rather, it is the solution to screening and keeping those diagnosed with hepatitis B linked to long-term care.

Dismantling stigma: The final barrier to elimination

Imee (right), an ambassador for Gilead’s BehinD the SilenCe campaign, believes that her lived experience with hepatitis B gives her purpose to speak for the community to reduce stigma and get the support they need. (Photo: Gilead Sciences)

Even the best-funded, most decentralized health infrastructure will fall short if societal fear prevents those diagnosed with hepatitis B from walking through the clinic doors. Heavy social stigma, discrimination, and widespread misinformation continue to keep millions of Filipinos in the shadows, reluctant to seek testing, care, or disclose their status.

Overcoming this requires elevating the voices of those with lived experience. Volunteer leaders like Imee, a hepatitis B ambassador with the Yellow Warriors Society Philippines (YWSP), demonstrate the transformative impact of patient advocacy. After resigning from her job out of fear that her colleagues would learn about her hepatitis B diagnosis, Imee understands firsthand how crippling stigma can be. She has transformed that adversity into action, working tirelessly to demystify the disease and challenge cultural taboos. In addition to providing psychological counseling to empower those living with hepatitis, Imee’s work at YWSP also includes mapping local public health services to encourage more people to get screened and access continuous care.

Through public awareness initiatives like Gilead Sciences’ BehinD the SilenCe campaign, developed in collaboration with the World Hepatitis Alliance, advocates are shining a light on the unspoken emotional and social burdens of living with hepatitis. By fostering open, empathetic dialogue, we can replace fear with understanding, encouraging individuals to step forward for screening and care without shame.

The road ahead: A call for action

Viral hepatitis is a preventable and manageable condition. We possess effective strategies and intervention mechanisms on how to screen and deliver care efficiently. However, the roadmap to eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030 requires a unified, multi-sectoral strategy focused on three imperatives:

1. Decentralize services: Fully integrate HBV screening and care into primary care settings, ensuring seamless procurement and distribution of diagnostics and medicines to local health centers..

2. Capacity building: Train and equip primary care healthcare workers to screen, diagnose, counsel, and manage patients living with hepatitis B in community settings.

3. Community-led advocacy: Partner with patient organizations to normalize public discussions, combat stigma, and overcome barriers to testing and care

We stand at a pivotal crossroads. By moving hepatitis care out of specialized hospitals and into primary care community settings, we can transform national policy into saved lives. The time to act is now.

Author: Dr. Janus Ong, a gastroenterologist, transplant hepatologist, and associate professor at the University of the Philippines Manila. 

Three cyclones stir 'habagat'; death toll rises to 33

 

(Image from PAGASA)

Parts of Luzon and the western section of the Visayas can expect rainy weather as three tropical cyclones continue to enhance the southwest monsoon or “habagat,” the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said on Monday, Aug. 31. Read more

Meanwhile, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) recorded 33 deaths, 19 injured persons, and three missing individuals amid the effects of three tropical cyclones and the southwest monsoon. Read more

Hitze-Weltrekord?

 

Deutsches Dorf erlebt die heißeste Nacht, die je nördlich des 50. Breitengrads gemessen wurde

Stand:30.06.2026, 17:18 Uhr

Von: Lara Hempel

Die Nacht sollte Abkühlung bringen, stattdessen schrieb ein kleiner Ort in Sachsen möglicherweise Klimageschichte in globalem Ausmaß.

Wenn der Sommer seine Grenzen testet, tut er das meist tagsüber mit gleißender Sonne und Asphalt, der weich wird unter den Füßen. Doch in diesem Jahr war es ausgerechnet die Nacht, die alle Maßstäbe sprengte. Eine einzige Messstation in Sachsen hat eine Zahl geliefert, die man sonst nur aus den heißesten Regionen der Welt kennt. Und damit möglicherweise sogar einen neuen Weltrekord.   

Die Nacht sollte Abkühlung bringen – stattdessen schrieb ein kleiner Ort in Sachsen möglicherweise Klimageschichte. (Symbolbild) © IMAGO/Jan Eifert

In der Nacht zum Sonntag sank in Kubschütz im sächsischen Landkreis Bautzen das Thermometer zu keiner Stunde unter 29,4 Grad Celsius. Der Deutsche Wetterdienst (DWD) bestätigte laut t-online auf Basis vorläufiger Daten. Es war die heißeste Nacht, die je in Deutschland gemessen wurde. Der bisherige Rekord stammte aus dem August 2003, damals zeigte das Thermometer auf dem 554 Meter hohen Weinbiet in der Pfalz 27,2 Grad als Tiefstwert. Aber es könnte nicht nur der deutsche Rekord gebrochen worden sein.  

„Föhn-Effekt“ zum Rekord: Was hinter den extremen Werten steckt

Der nationale Rekord ist womöglich nur die halbe Geschichte. Der auf der Plattform X aktive Account „Extreme Temperatures Around The World“ erklärte, es könnte sich um die heißeste Nacht handeln, die nördlich des 50. Breitengrads je weltweit festgestellt wurde. Dieser Breitengrad teilt Deutschland ungefähr auf Höhe der Mainlinie. Diplom-Meteorologe Dominik Jung bestätigte gegenüber t-online, der Account sei „eine in der Fachwelt bekannte und viel beachtete Quelle für Temperaturextreme.“

Für solche Tiefstwerte nördlich der Mainlinie fehle normalerweise die nötige subtropische Grundwärme, erklärte Jung: „Das sind Verhältnisse, die man sonst eher von der arabischen Halbinsel kennt.“ Für Mitteleuropa sei ein solcher Wert „absolut außergewöhnlich“. Einen Teil der Erklärung liefert die Lage von Kubschütz: Die Mittelgebirgslage in der Oberlausitz begünstigte föhnige Effekte durch südliche Winde auf der Nordseite der Hänge.  

13 Lebensmittel, die bei großer Hitze vermieden werden sollten

Fotostrecke ansehen

Der DWD habe selbst auf diesen Föhn-Effekt hingewiesen, so Jung weiter. Seine Einschätzung fällt entsprechend nüchtern aus: „Es handelt sich um einen lokalen, durch Föhn verstärkten Extremwert an einer einzelnen Station.“ Eine offizielle weltweite Einordnung steht noch aus. Eine DWD-Meteorologin erklärte t-online, dafür sei „eine systematische Auswertung und Validierung internationaler Messdaten sowie die Prüfung der Vergleichbarkeit der Messungen“ erforderlich, und das benötige Zeit. Auch wichtig: Eine Einwanderin erklärt, warum die Hitze in Deutschland teils unerträglicher ist als 45 °C in Indien.  

The Hidden Trap of Worry

 

Learning to stop worrying involves training your brain to recognize that worry is merely a misguided habit. By actively managing your mindset with techniques like scheduled worry periods, radical acceptance, and mindfulness, you can break the anxiety cycle and take back control of your life.

Worrying is generally unhelpful because it traps your brain in a loop of "what-ifs" without producing actionable solutions. While moderate worry can briefly motivate you to prepare for a specific event, excessive worrying impairs decision-making, reduces creative problem-solving, and harms your physical health.

Some feelings of worry can be healthy, pushing us to find solutions to real and present problems. However, chronic worry, even about things out of our control, can severely impact our mental health.

The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke put it well: “Life is not even close to being as logically consistent as our worries; it has many more unexpected ideas and many more facts than we do.” Worrying is pointless not only because it rarely makes things better, but also because you're rarely ever worried about the right thing!

We hardly count our blessings. We enjoy counting our crosses. Instead of gains, we count our losses. We don't have to do all that counting - computers do it for us. Information is easily had.

Facebook to and fro, back and forth, there and back - how many posts and comments have been posted already with sadness, loneliness, boredom strikes, problems, worries ... .

Just remember this: Opportunity doesn't just knock - it jiggles the door-knob. and "your social media online-friend" - the warrior is with you day and night, at every corner, following your every step. Complaining and grumbling are good excuses, right?

Seniors may experience more anxiety-inducing situations than younger adults, and they may not have as many resources for support. Some people may notice that their anxious thoughts get stronger or more frequent with age, but anxiety is a treatable mental health disorder.

Is social media bad for us? Four billion people, around 50% of the world’s population, use online social media – and we’re spending an average of two hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute. Stress, mood, anxiety, depression, sleep (or better non-sleep), self-esteem - Overall, social media’s effects on well-being are ambiguous, according to a paper written last year by researchers from the Netherlands. However, they suggested there is clearer evidence for the impact on one group of people: social media has a more negative effect on the well-being of those who are more socially isolated.

The whole world is an awful place filled with dreadful and horrible negativism. Yes, I confess, I'm also surrounded by many worriers who put their fears into me. Politicians, i.e., many times love to search for some grave alarm that will cause individuals to abandon their separate concerns and act in concert, so that politicians can wield the baton. Calls to fatal struggles and fights are forever being sounded.

The overbearing person, who tyrannizes the weak, who wants to domineer and to bluster, is simply nothing else than a worrier, who claims to be a friend. But he isn't. Really not! The bullying of fellow citizens by means of dread and fright has been going on since Paleolithic times. The night wolf is eating the moon. Give me silver and I'll make him spit out.

Well, when will we start counting our courage and not our fears, or enjoy instead of our woe? Worrying itself is pointless.Of course, no society has achieved perfect rules of law, never-ending education or unique responsible governments. Let's seek out the worries but avoid the warriors, because they try to avoid liberty.

Worry, that sense of insecurity, unease, and fear over what negative events may happen – as unrealistic as these concerns may be – is one of the most unpleasant emotions that you can experience as a human being. It is also one of the most common. While everyone has worried at some point, many people suffer from chronic worrying in the form of anxiety. In Australia alone, 2 million people will suffer from anxiety in any one year.

If you worry often, you’re far from alone. In fact, it may comfort you to know that many of us tend to worry about the same issues. All of those anxieties and stressors that may plague your life also affect a huge chunk of the rest of the world as well.

Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D., is a practicing psychologist, author, speaker, and life/business coach, with more than 20 years of experience as a clinician, professor, and researcher. She says:" One of the most helpful things you can do instead of worrying is problem-solving. Problem-solving means defining the problem in a way that you can do something about it (e.g., "How do I prepare for a possible loss of income?" or "How can I learn to accept that my ex has moved on?"). Once you have a defined problem, you can generate some possible solutions and think through the likely consequences of each (e.g., "What is most likely to happen if I do X?"). Finally, you can implement your favorite solution, whether it involves taking action, discussing the situation, finding out more information, or working to accept something you cannot change".

If you are still worrying right now about something, try to read Jeremiah 29:10-14 or Revelation 21:1-8, just to mention these two. It works.

PRAYING THE ROSARY MAY SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

The Holy Rosary is not only a cherished Catholic devotion but may also offer meaningful benefits for mental and emotional well-being. Recent research suggests that praying the Rosary can have effects similar to those associated with meditation, helping individuals find peace, comfort, and stability amid life's challenges.

A multinational study published in the Journal of Religion and Health, titled "Is the Rosary Still Relevant? Exploring its Impact on Mental Health and Well-Being," examined the experiences of 361 practicing Catholics from Italy, Poland, and Spain. The researchers found positive associations between praying the Rosary and lower levels of depression, greater empathy, and fewer religious struggles.

According to the study, participants who regularly prayed the Rosary reported benefits that extended beyond spiritual practice. The repetitive and contemplative nature of the prayer appeared to foster calmness, encourage reflection, and provide a healthy way of coping with stress and emotional difficulties.

Many believers have long experienced the Rosary as a source of strength in times of hardship. One participant shared, “Praying the rosary saved my life... it gave me the strength to survive these difficult moments.” Such testimonies reflect how this devotion can become a powerful companion during seasons of suffering, uncertainty, and grief.

While the Rosary remains above all a prayer that draws us closer to Jesus through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, its practice may also contribute to emotional resilience, inner peace, and a renewed sense of hope. In a world often marked by anxiety and unrest, taking time each day to pray the Rosary can be a simple yet profound way to nurture both the soul and the mind.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Reference: "Is the Rosary Still Relevant? Exploring its Impact on Mental Health and Well-Being," Journal of Religion and Health.