Originally from CVCHRD 8th PNHRS Week Bulletin, August 13-14, 2014
The Central Visayas Consortium for Health Research and Development (CVCHRD) hosted the 8th PNHRS Week Celebration on August 12-14, 2014 at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Cebu City.
There were more than 600 guests and participants from diverse profession who converged in Cebu for the celebration. The theme for the year was “Research and innovation in Health for Disaster and Emergency Management”.
Various speakers like USec. Carol M. Yorobe, Sec. Panfilo M. Lacson, ASec. Dr. Enrique A. Tayag, Ms. Maria Ressa, and Prof. Virginia Murray graced the event and various presentations on disasters and emergency-preparation, actions, tools, and role of social media were shown to provide an array of choice for the participants to learn from.
During the opening ceremonies, Secretary Panfilo M. Lacson delivered his keynote address in support to the community. Sec. Lacson considered this year’s theme as an avenue for researchers to identify the need in developing mechanisms to make the Philippines effective in responding and dealing with emergencies and disasters.
In his speech, he encouraged the health researchers to empower more people to conduct health and health related studies. He also cited the importance of health research on the evidence-based action plans that his office is implementing for the rehabilitation strategies on areas affected by typhoon Haiyan.
Rappler’s CEO, Ms. Maria Ressa expressed to the community on how social media played important roles during emergencies and disasters.
Project AGOS, as launched by Rappler, which basically uses the “wisdom of the crowd” were also presented by Ms. Ressa; the use of crowd sourcing can assist in the quickest way possible without wasting valuable resources the inputs from the people in a certain area who are in need during emergency or disaster.
The project is accordingly a platform that combines top down government action and bottom up civic engagement to help communities deal with climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. It harnesses technology to maximize the flow of critical data before, during, and after a disaster.
The plenary sessions focused on Science for disaster management: Safeguarding people’s health with Dr. Lester S.A. Geroy, WHO Cebu Field Officer for post Haiyan recovery and Dr. Cecilia S. Acuin, from FNRI as speakers.
Dr. Geroy provided the area for improvement from post Yolanda experience susch as Logistic/Finance Capabilities, Resilience of hospitals and health facilities, policies and planning as well as incident command system (ICS) on all levels of society. In his experience, certain agencies such as the WHO and the LGU collaborated for strategic approaches including HEMS. The efforts of the agencies and the communities have contributed to the rehabilitation program in crisis-stricken areas.
Dr. Cecilia Acuin gave her insights about emergency food and the relevance of assessing the health status of Filipinos during emergencies.
Dr. Acuin through her FNRI Research discussed about emergency food to help guarantee sustenance among disaster victims. Though regarded as immediate relief, packs of biscuits, porridge, canned goods, and bottled water are best examples of quick, easy to serve, and high in energy sources recommended to be distributed during emergencies.
On the 8th PNHRS Student Research Competition, the paper entitled “Not all tawa-tawas are alike: A morphological, molecular, genetic, phytochemical, and anti-thrombocytopenic profiling of different Euphorbia hirta Linn. Plants from the Philippines” from the UP Manila College of Medicine bagged the 1st place.
On the 2014 DOST-PCHRD Gruppo Medica Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis in Herbal Medicine went to the paper entitled: “The anti-dengue fraction of tawa-tawa (Euphorbia hirta) whole plant and papaya (Carica papaya) leaves tea preparation using the laboratory criteria: platelet count and hematocrit levels” from the San Pedro College as 1st place.
