At “Uniting to Combat NTDs: Translating the London Declaration into Action,” we had a chance to catch up with Dr. Leda Hernandez, Division Chief of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control Department of Health in the Philippines.

Global Network: What are the most common Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in the Philippines?

Dr. Leda Hernandez: We have six of the most common NTDs in the Philippines, namely the soil transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis, leprosy, rabies, food and water born (diseases), and lymphatic filariasis. These NTDs affect the health of the community, especially the children and the pregnant women.

Global Network: What are some ways that NTDs impact children?

DLH: If pregnant women are affected by NTDs and have a lot of worms, it can cause anemia and have affects on the fetus. If young children are infested with these worms, their growth and development will also be affected. With respect to the school, children impacted by more worms have lower grades and often miss more days of school.

Global Network: Do you believe that Asia will meet the goal to eliminate and control NTDs by 2020?

DLH: If some of our neighbor countries look for funds aside from government, like we did, I believe it can. The main thing is the government should have most of the share and look to other partners to fill in the gaps. If the government does not have a share of the budget for the elimination of the NTDs, the government should lead or should be supporting that elimination strategy.

Global Network: What has compelled you to work on this issue?

DLH: I think it’s the commitment and I’m very proud to say that we still have many committed health workers in the Philippines, especially those working in the field. I remember when we started with no budget and we asked health workers to contribute to some of the activities and to ride on some already existing programs. We were able to map where lymphatic filariasis cases were most prevalent and because of that we were able to convince our policymakers that it’s still re-emerging and it’s still a public health threat, just like NTDs.