SALCEDO, Ilocos Sur – The Department of Health (DOH)-Ilocos Center for Health Development provided various medical supplies and equipment to the residents here on Thursday, September 28, as part of the “Bagong Pilipinas para sa mga Katutubo” caravan.
 
Some 298 recipients were provided with HerbMAP (Herbal Medicine Access Program) homecare packages containing a box of “lagundi” tablets for the treatment of cough and asthma, one bottle of virgin coconut oil for food supplements, antibacterial soaps including guava soap used for washing wounds and sore, and “akapulko” soap each for use in the washing of skin problems caused by fungal infections like scabies and ringworm.
 
A total of 265 pregnant women also received “buntis” kits, and Nutribox packages that contained 10 kilogram iron-fortified rice, texturized vegetable protein, dehydrated vegetables, iodized salt, and margarine.
 
Twenty-six wheelchairs, 25 canes, and 11 crutches were similarly distributed to the identified senior citizens and persons with disabilities in this town.
 

The DOH gave emergency kits to all 21 barangays and some 90 oral health kits to the identified recipients.
 
Apart from these, three barangays, namely Bulala, Pias, and Dinaratan were awarded barangay health station (BHS) equipment such as an examining table, dressing cart, fetal doppler, minor instrument set, weighing scale with BMI (body mass index) calculator, medicine cabinet, and EENT (eye, ear, nose, and throat) diagnostic set each.
 
Abraham Camanga, the barangay chairperson of Pias, expressed his thanks to the government for their unending support to the barangays especially in the health sector.
 
“Agyaman ti sibubukel a barangay iti DOH, iti local government ti Salcedo specially to our very energetic Mayor Ninya ken amin a ahensya a nausar tapno maidanun dagitoy a equipment iti daytoy BHS ti barangay mi. Pudno unay a dakkel ti maitulong dagitoy nga equipment a naited iti BHS ti barangay ta maiyasideg dagiti serbisyo medical kadagiti agindeg ti barangay mi, kasta met kadagiti kabangibangmi a barangay. Makatulong pay daytoy iti pinansyal nga aspeto ta saanen agpamasahe pay ti pasyente nga apan iti ospital ta adda metten iti asideg dagiti basic a medical services. Dakkel maitulong na kangrunaan na kadagiti indigent a pamilya, dagiti senior citizen ken masikog (Our barangay is beyond grateful to the DOH, the local government unit of Salcedo especially to our very energetic Mayor Ninya, and to various agencies who helped for these equipment to be delivered to our BHS. Truly, these equipment will be beneficial to our community as it helped in the fast delivery of medical services to our residents and also the residents of nearby barangays. It will also help in the financial aspect as our residents can just travel by foot to avail of medical services, these equipment are indeed helpful to us especially to indigent families, senior citizens, and pregnant women),” he said.

To date, there are five functioning BHS in this town located at barangays Dinaratan, Baluarte, Sorioan, Boguibog, and Pias, while a new BHS is being constructed at barangay Baybayading funded by the DOH, according to Mayor Grazielle “Ninya” Gironella-Itchon. 
 
Salcedo is one of the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas or GIDAs in Ilocos Sur and became the first recipient of the caravan in the province and the third in the region, with Sison town in Pangasinan and Nueva Era town in Ilocos Norte as the first and second, respectively. (JCR/AMB/JMCQ, PIA Ilocos Sur)