Research Institute for Tropical Medicine

Last updated

Research Institute for Tropical Medicine
Surian sa Pananaliksik ng Medisinang Tropikal (Filipino)
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) of the Department of Health (DOH).svg
RITM Building.png
Main building in 2015
Latin
f
EstablishedApril 23, 1981;42 years ago (1981-04-23) [1] : i 
Field of research
 Tropical disease
Director Celia C. Carlos
Address9002 Research Drive, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang [2]
Location Muntinlupa, Philippines
14°24′35″N121°02′13″E / 14.40985°N 121.03703°E / 14.40985; 121.03703
Operating agency
 Department of Health
Website ritm.gov.ph
Map
Metro Manila location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location in Metro Manila
Philippines location map (Luzon).svg
Red pog.svg
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (Luzon)
Philippines location map (square).svg
Red pog.svg
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (Philippines)

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM; Filipino : Surian sa Pananaliksik ng Medisinang Tropikal [3] [4] ) is a health research facility based in Muntinlupa, Philippines.

Contents

History

Establishment

By the early 1980s, negotiations between "mutually interested parties" within the governments of the Philippines and Japan had been going on for several years, and reached finally reached a breakthrough in 1981 in the form of a grant-in-aid agreement under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). [1] : viii 

With the help of this Japanese grant, a US$8 million facility was constructed within the Ministry of Health's Bureau of Research and Laboratories compound in Alabang, Muntinlupa. [1] : viii  Malacanang palace then issued Executive Order (EO) 674 on March 25, 1981, formally authorizing the Philippine Ministry of Health to establish a research facility to implement a basic and applied research program for tropical medicine in the Philippines, pushing both for health advancement and for medical research. [5] [6] [ full citation needed ]

The facility, which included an 80-bed hospital with an Intensive Care Unit and operating rooms, [6] was inaugurated on April 23, 1981. [1] : i 

Marcos era issues

Throughout the Marcos administration, the RITM was heavily dependent on Japanese government funding for its continued operations with JICA providing about US$1 million (approx ₱18 million) from 1981 to 1984, [7] and providing another ₱3.2 million in equipment in 1985, when the year RITM's experimental animal laboratory was established. By contrast, the administration's budget allocated the RITM an average of about ₱7 million annually from 1981 to 1985, largely for basic operating expenses and personnel services. [8] The institution was also renamed, having originally been proposed as the "Philippine Japan Research Institute for Tropical Diseases." [8] [9]

The institute's output was criticised in underground publications during the martial law regime because its research findings were not being released in the Philippines, and were instead only being submitted to JICA to satisfy grant requirements, [6] given that the majority of the patients it served were research patients, while the Philippine health system had an overwhelming need to meet basic health services. [6]

The institute thus became associated with the administration's supposed "edifice complex" [10] - propaganda projects designed to be impressive showcases of the administration's achievements but whose actual development impact at the time was questionable. [10] [6] [8] Like many edifice complex projects, RITM was located only in Manila, limiting access to it by citizens from elsewhere on the Philippine archipelago. [8]

Marukosu giwaku

Criticism of these and similar funding practices which helped prop up of the Marcos regime eventually became known as the Marukosu giwaku (マルコス疑惑), or "Marcos scandal", once the Marcoses were deposed in 1986. [11] The investigation by the Japanese legislature's 1986 session and the resulting reforms eventually brought about the creation of JICA's first ODA Charter in 1992. [12] [13]

Post-EDSA reforms

The RITM was retained by the Aquino administration, [14] and the various administrations after the 1986 EDSA revolution have continued to work with JICA to improve and expand RITM's services. [15]

Research dissemination

By 1987, RITM had implemented reforms reflecting the new administration's focus on making sure research is disseminated – launching a companion program to disseminate research results and creating the Office of Public Information Research Dissemination. It also launched a quarterly publication detailing its research findings and news items. Work towards the establishment of an International Training Center was also begun. [16]

Increased Philippine government funding

After Marcos was deposed in February 1986, the new government began allotting larger budgets to the RITM, with a ₱4.9 million increase in 1986. In the first full budget year after the Marcos administration, the RITM was given ₱5 million more than it had been given in the 1985 budget. [17]

Expansion

Additional research grants (1987)

Research grants from the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences (BOSTID), the International Development Research Center, the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau, the Edna McConnel Clark Foundation, Sanofi, and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development allowed RITM to expand its research beyond their previous focus on diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections, and schistosomiasis, and allowed research programs in AIDS, leprosy, hepatitis, dengue, and malaria. A Technical Cooperation Program with JICA allowed RITM to expand the expertise of its staff. [16]

Center for Training in Tropical Infectious Diseases (1989)

In 1989, the RITM Center for Training in Tropical Infectious Diseases was established.

NIH Tropical Medicine Research Center Program (1991)

In 1990 the US National Institutes of Health approved a 5-year grant to the RITM for the establishment of a NIH Tropical Medicine Research Center Program in the Philippines, starting in February 1991. This partnership allowed the RITM to collaborate with scientists in Australia and the US on research relating to malaria, leprosy, and schistosomiasis. [18]

Merger with the DOH Biologicals Production Service (2000)

The Biologicals Production Service of the Department of Health, the vaccine laboratory of the Philippines, was absorbed by the RITM in November 2000 [19]

Biosafety Level 3 laboratory (2018)

The RITM received a Biosafety Level 3 laboratory from the Japanese government in 2018, improving its capacity to conduct research on higher-risk bacteria and viruses. [20]

COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the RITM became a site for preliminary testing for suspected cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the Philippines. [21] In the early months of the pandemic in the Philippines, RITM was the only laboratory with the capacity to test COVID-19 cases. [22]

Institute functions

The RITM is tasked by the Philippine Department of Health and the Philippine Government to supervise, plan, and successfully implement research programs to prevent and to control prevailing infectious and tropical diseases in the Philippines. This includes research involving the advancement of vaccines and medications used by medical professionals, such as physicians, nurses, and medical technologists, that they utilize whenever patients they handle are under the diagnosis and treatment of infectious and treatable and curable diseases. The institute also trains medical and health workers in order to be further educated in their fields in relation to the management of tropical infectious diseases. Formulation of plans and research projects involving biological products proposed and currently utilized by the Philippine Department of Health are also covered by the functions of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, including the manufacture of biologic products and vaccines.

See also

Related Research Articles

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's mission is to conduct basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropical medicine</span> Interdisciplinary branch of medicine

Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with health issues that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or are more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Juanico Bridge</span> Second longest bridge in the Philippines, connecting Leyte and Samar

The San Juanico Bridge is part of the Pan-Philippine Highway and stretches from Samar to Leyte across the San Juanico Strait in the Philippines. Its longest length is a steel girder viaduct built on reinforced concrete piers, and its main span is of an arch-shaped truss design. Constructed during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos through Japanese Official Development Assistance loans, it has a total length of 2.16 kilometers (1.34 mi)—the second longest bridge spanning a body of seawater in the Philippines after the Cebu-Cordova Bridge. It was also the longest bridge in the Philippines upon its opening in 1973, surpassed in 1976 by Candaba Viaduct of North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), another bridge that connects from one province to another, connecting the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Health (Philippines)</span> Executive department of the Philippine government

The Department of Health is the executive department of the government of the Philippines responsible for ensuring access to basic public health services by all Filipinos through the provision of quality health care, the regulation of all health services and products. It is the government's over-all technical authority on health. It has its headquarters at the San Lazaro Compound, along Rizal Avenue in Manila.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nagasaki University</span>

Nagasaki University is a national university of Japan. Its nickname is Chōdai (長大). The main campus is located in Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureau of Soils and Water Management</span> Agency of the Philippine government

The Philippines' Bureau of Soils and Water Management, is an agency of the Philippine government under the Department of Agriculture responsible for advising and rendering assistance on matters relative to the utilization of soils and water as vital agricultural resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority</span>

The Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority or PhilFIDA is an agency of the Philippine Department of Agriculture responsible for promoting the accelerated growth and development of the fiber industry in the Philippines, such as abaca, also known as Manila hemp and cotton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Science and technology in the Philippines</span>

Science and technology in the Philippines describes scientific and technological progress made by the Philippines and analyses related policy issues. The main agency responsible for managing science and technology (S&T) is the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). There are also sectoral councils for Forestry, Agriculture and Aquaculture, the Metal Industry, Nuclear Research, Food and Nutrition, Health, Meteorology, Volcanology and Seismology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University</span> Public university in La Union, Philippines

The Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University is the state university system serving the province of La Union in the Philippines. Its main autonomous unit is in Bacnotan. It was created by former president Ferdinand Marcos by using Presidential Decree 1778 to combine a number of state-run schools in La Union into a single state college in 1981. Like Mariano Marcos State University in Ilocos Norte, it is named for the former president's father, Mariano Marcos.

Southern Luzon State University, formerly known as Southern Luzon Polytechnic College (SLPC), is the premier, state-funded higher education institution in Quezon Province in the Philippines operating by virtue of Republic Act 9395. It is composed of 11 campuses in the province of Quezon, with the main campus situated in the Municipality of Lucban.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louie Mar Gangcuangco</span> Filipino physician, HIV researcher & novelist (b.1987)

Louie Mar Gangcuangco is a Filipino physician, HIV researcher and novelist. He is the author of the novel Orosa-Nakpil, Malate and is working as Assistant Professor of Medicine for the Hawaii Center for AIDS-University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 swine flu pandemic in the Philippines</span> Disease outbreak in the Philippines

The 2009 flu pandemic was confirmed to have spread to the Philippines on May 21, 2009. In the following days, several local cases were reported to be caused by contact with two infected Taiwanese women who attended a wedding ceremony in Zambales.

The Naval Medical Research Unit Indo Pacific, formerly known as Naval Medical Research Unit Two (NAMRU-2), is a biomedical research laboratory of the US Navy established with the purpose to study infectious diseases of potential military significance in Asia. NAMRU-2 is officially registered as a subordinate command of Naval Medical Research Command located on Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S. and considered as the center network of laboratories around the world.

Shiba Kumar Rai is a Professor of medical microbiology and member of National Planning Commission (NPC) of the government of Nepal. He is also founding chairman of Shi-Gan Health Foundation, Shi-Gan Int’l College of Science & Technology (SICOST), Nat’l Institute of Tropical Medicine & Public Health Research, DASHIMURA Foundation & DEVIS Multipurpose (P) Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippine Children's Medical Center</span> Hospital in Metro Manila, Philippines

The Philippine Children's Medical Center is a government-run children's hospital in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The hospital as a government-owned and controlled corporation is attached to the Department of Health.

Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), also known as Baguio General Hospital (BGH), is a hospital in Baguio, Philippines. It is the largest government funded tertiary hospital in the Northern Luzon Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines</span> COVID-19 viral pandemic in the Philippines

The COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. As of February 4, 2024, there have been 4,140,383 reported cases, and 66,864 reported deaths, the fifth highest in Southeast Asia, behind Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The first case in the Philippines was identified on January 30, 2020, and involved a 38-year-old Chinese woman who was confined at San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila. On February 1, 2020, a posthumous test result from a 44-year-old Chinese man turned out positive for the virus, making the Philippines the first country outside China to record a confirmed death from the disease.

The Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines (VSTIP), also referred to as the Virology Institute of the Philippines (VIP), is a proposed virology research facility in the Philippines.

Leopoldo "Bong" Jumalon Vega is a Filipino physician, surgeon and former hospital administrator serving as an undersecretary of the Department of Health since 2020. Prior to joining the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, he served as medical center chief of the state-run Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City for twelve years. On July 13, 2020, Vega was appointed to the National Task Force Against Coronavirus under the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases as COVID-19 Treatment Czar.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "1981 Annual Report" (PDF). Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Contact Us | Research Institute for Tropical Medicine". Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  3. ↑ Mga Pangalan ng Tanggapan ng Pamahalaan sa Filipino [Names of Government Offices in Filipino](PDF) (2013 ed.). Commission on the Filipino Language. 2013. p. 20. ISBN   978-971-0197-22-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 23, 2021. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  4. ↑ Direktoryo ng mga Ahensiya at Opisyal ng Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas (PDF) (in Filipino). Kagawaran ng Badyet at Pamamahala (Department of Budget and Management). 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Executive Order No. 674, s. 1981". Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. March 25, 1981. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Manapat, Ricardo. (1991) Some Are Smarter Than Others. Aletheia Press.
  7. ↑ "1984 Annual Report" (PDF). Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Ariate, Joel F. Jr.; Reyes, Miguel Paolo P. (April 22, 2020). "Marcos propaganda in a time of plague". VeraFiles. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  9. ↑ "JICA Report PDF: Proposal for the control of communicable diseases in the Philippines" (PDF). openjicareport.jica.go.jp. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 26, 2020.
  10. 1 2 Lico, Gerard (2003). Edifice Complex: Power, Myth, and Marcos State Architecture. University of Hawaii Press.
  11. ↑ Hirata, K. (August 16, 2002). Civil Society in Japan: The Growing Role of NGO's in Tokyo's Aid and Development Policy. Springer. p. 89. ISBN   9780230109162.
  12. ↑ Brown, James D. J.; Kingston, Jeff (January 2, 2018). Japan's Foreign Relations in Asia. Routledge. ISBN   9781351678575.
  13. ↑ Tsunekawa, Keiichi (February 2014). "Objectives and Institutions for Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) : Evolution and Challenges". JICA Research Institute Working Papers No.66. No. 66.
  14. ↑ "1986 Annual Report" (PDF). Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  15. ↑ Espino, Fe Esperanza J. (April 6, 2006). "RITM: Working for public good for 25 years". The Philippine Star . Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  16. 1 2 "1987 Annual Report". Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  17. ↑ Ariate, Joel F. Jr.; Reyes, Miguel Paolo P. (April 25, 2020). "Senator Imee Marcos lies about RITM in pushing for SB1407". Vera Files. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  18. ↑ "1990 Annual Report". Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  19. ↑ Adel, Rosette (May 22, 2020). "DOST proposes creation of virology institute in Philippines". The Philippine Star. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Japan turns over BSL-3 lab to PH". Philippine News Agency. September 3, 2018. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  21. ↑ Romero, Sheila Crisostomo,Alexis. "DOH probes 8 cases of suspected nCoV". The Philippine Star.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ "DOH sends 100,000 test kits to RITM, testing centers nationwide". CNN Philippines. March 23, 2020. Archived from the original on March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.