Lesson 4

Quackery
An informed consumer has the best chance of investing wisely. The
professional services you engage in the foods you buy, the health products
you use, can either be helpful or harmful.
As a consumer, you are offered all kinds of goods and services relating
to your health. It is up to you to get to most out of your money. Today, more
than ever, it pays a consumer to be well-informed.
Quackery is the practice of medicine, or other accredited health
professions by a dishonest or an incompetent person with little or no
professional preparation to do what he claims he can do.
A quack doctor can easily be determined if he promises quick or easy
cure; he advertises, or uses testimonials, or case histories to impress
people; he clamors constantly for medical investigation and recognition; he
uses a special or secret formula or machine that he claims can cure
diseases; and he tells you that his method or treatment is better than
surgery, drugs or X-ray.
Quackery reaches into the lives of all people the gullible and wise,
rich and the poor, all races and religions. Aside from the loss of money spent
on phony cures, there are other costs such as:
1. Actual damage done to the individual by using fake services and
products.
2. Delay of proper medicinal treatment while undergoing easier
treatment from the fraudulent doctor. Delay in diagnosis and
treatment, by taking fake cures may result in death.
3. Raising of false hopes in the sick person and in his family by the quack
doctors assurance of permanent healing.
Your best defense against fraudulent heath care is to seek advice from a
doctor.

Self-Medication and Self-Diagnosis

Self-medication is the treatment of an individuals health conditions
without consulting a physician or doctor. In many instances, the do-ityourself treatment may be an unsound practice. When the symptoms are
severe; unusual, persistent or recurring, do not self-medicate but consult
a competent physician.

Factors to Consider When Using Any Types of Medication

1. Some medicines relieve symptoms but do not cure the ailment. If
symptoms persist, see a physician.
2. Some individuals are more adversely affected by medicines than
others.

3. Some medicines are unsafe when taken in combination with others and
overdose is more likely to happen. Make your physician aware of
prescription over-the-counter drugs you are taking.
4. Find out the effective and safe time span for the medicine being used.

Lesson 5
Consumer Laws
Consumer Protection
The government has the general responsibility of watching over the
different agencies on consumer programs. Among its many responsibilities,
the Bureau of Food and Drug Administration enforces laws and regulations
relating to food. It works for the material and local consumer agencies and
handles consumer complaints. However, it is primarily concerned not with
the food itself but with how it advertised and labeled and with whether there
is illegal price-fixing or not.

Consumer Laws
Laws are powerful means of protecting the welfare of the consumer. A
buyer may refuse to accept the goods he has previously ordered and cancel
the contract or keep the goods and sue the dishonest seller for damages.
On the absence of established consumer laws in the Philippines the
Consumer Code of the Philippines was instituted in 1975 to protect the
Filipino consumers welfare. Some government measures to achieve these
objectives are:
1. Protection against hazards to health and safety.
2. Protection against deceptive and unfair practices
3. Provision of adequate rights
4. Provision of information to facilitate sound choice and proper
exercise of rights by the consumer.

Consumers Choice
Individuals should be responsible for their own health behavior.
Consumers need to guard against wasteful spending on products of dubious
value and unneeded services. It is the individuals responsibility to be
informed about the products or services about to be purchased or used.
Report frauds and suspected fraudulent practices to proper authorities.
Exercising these rights and responsibilities can help put an end to deceitful
business practices.

Government Agencies Protecting Consumers

1. Bureau of Food and Drugs (formerly FDA)

- protects the consumers, manufactures and dealers by enforcing the
Food and Drug Cosmetics Act
- inspects factories and processing plants and looks for products that
violate the law
- recalls unsafe drugs or other substances from the market
- enforces laws against illegal drugs, devices and cosmetics
- investigates therapeutic devices for safety and truthfulness of
labeling claim
2. Bureau of Post
- investigates any incidence of mail fraud
- regulates attempts to sell worthless and harmful merchandise or
drugs through mail
3. Department of Health
- undertake s inspection of food-disposing establishments, meat and
milk products, narcotics and pasteurization of milk

Professional and Voluntary Groups

1. Philippine Medical Association
- protects consumers and medical personnel against improper and
fraudulent advertising of nostrums and proprietary medical products
2. Philippine dental Association
- standardizes materials used in dental practices
3. Consumers Union of the Philippines and Consumers Research, Inc.
- offers subscribers information and counsel on consumer goods and
services for quality
4. Better and Business bureaus
- fights frauds, promotes advertising accuracy and reduces unfair
competition
5. Kilusang Mamimili sa Pilipinas
- encourages consumers to make intelligent purchases of products
and services
- provides a meeting place to discuss consumer problems
6. Home Economics Association and Other Nutrition Groups
- provides students with an understanding of grades of products,
standards and services for consumers to combat food quackery and
faddist

Lesson 6
Traditional medicine

If we are to justify the inclusion of traditional medicine within the

compass of the World Health Organization (WHO), we need not to look any
further. The emblem of WHO superimposes on the globe the staff of
Aesculapius, ancient god of medicine, entwined by a snake. The gods
serpents were said to lick the wounds and lesions of the sick in their sleep
and thus, heal them.
For far too long, traditional systems of medicine and modern
medicine have gone their separate ways in mutual antipathy. Yet their goals
are identical to improve the health of mankind and thereby improve the
quality of life. Only the blinkered mind would assume that each has nothing
to learn from the other.
Unfortunately, that divergence between the two systems of medicine
has almost exactly paralleled the division of the world between the rich and
the poor. Too often, the privileged and well-to-do, living in large towns and
cities, enjoy access to all the complex technology and life-saving apparatus
of modern medicine. Tens of millions of people have such access; for them,
the traditional healer, the herbalist and the traditional birth attendant are the
only agents of health care whom they can turn to. Not only are most of the
rural areas of developing countries do not have a single qualified physician,
but on the average, they do not have more than one auxiliary health worker
for 10,000 persons. In some parts of the world, even when medical care is
available, the majority actually prefers the traditional healer, whom they
know and trust.
The age-old arts of the herbalists, too, must be tapped. Many of the
plants familiar with the wise-woman or the witch doctor really do have
the healing powers that tradition attaches to them; the pharmacopoeia of
modern medicine would be poorer of one removed from it all the
preparations, chemicals and compounds whose origins lie in herbs, fungi,
flowers, fruits and roots.

Let us not be in any doubt: modern medicine still has a great deal to
learn from the collection of herbs. And already, a number of health
departments, in the developing countries especially, are carefully analyzing
the potions and decoctions used by traditional healers to determine whether
their active ingredients have healing powers that science has overlooked.
Whatever the outcome of such scientific testing, there is no doubt that
health care can make a major contribution towards reducing a developing
countrys drug bill.
Given goodwill on both sides, such an army of healers, traditional birth
attendants and herbalists can help to make our goal of health care
attainable.

Lesson 7
Health Services and Health Insurance
Health Services
Because of the high cost of health care in the Philippines, many citizens
are receiving inadequate or no proper medical health care at all. The poor
and the elderly are the ones who suffer most from the present health care
delivery system. To alleviate the problem, several health facilities are now
available in different communities too serve the public. These local health
agencies provide the following services:
1. free immunization for various diseases
2. medical treatment to prevent the spread of diseases
3. public education on primary health care
4. maternal and child health clinics
5. public health nursing services
6. dental services
7. coordination with the nutrition economic groups

Government Agencies Involved in Health, Nutrition and Family Planning Services

1. National Family Planning Outreach Project
- delivers population/family planning services

serves as the link between the barangay communities and

developmental agencies

2. Rural Health Family Planning Center

- dispenses pills and supervises IUD insertion
- facilitates treatment and management of common illnesses
- attend to emergency care
- conducts pre-marital counseling
3. Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
- conducts population awareness and sex education activities for outof-school youth
- provides counseling for couples of reproductive age
4. Puericulture centers, Clinics
- provides treatment
5. Community Health centers
- conducts operation timbang
- conducts surveillance of public health problems in the community
and makes referrals

Selecting Health Advisers

Everyone should have a personal or family physician. If a medical
emergency arises, a person can seek help immediately from a trusted
medical professional who knows the patients history.
The medical doctor provides preventive3 services to protect total
health and gives continuous supervision to health needs based on his
findings in periodical health examinations and laboratory teats. He offers
medical care to rehabilitate the individual to a healthy sate. He refers the
patient to other specialists when needed.

Medical Specialists
1. Allergist - diagnoses and treats body reactions resulting from unusual
sensitivity to food, medicines, dust and other substances
2. Anesthesiologist administers various anesthetics to assure proper
operative procedures
3. Cardiologist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of
the heart and blood vessels
4. Dermatologist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases
of the skin and skin manifestations of institutional diseases

5. Endocrinologist specializes in the treatment of diseases arising from

disordered internal secretions
6. Gynecologist specializes in diseases of the female reproductive
organs
7. Internist specializes in diagnosis of non-surgical treatment of diseases
of the internal organs
8. Neurologist specializes in providing diagnosis and surgical treatment
of diseases of the brain, nerves and spinal cord
9. Obstetrician specializes in the care of women during pregnancy and
childbirth
10.
Ophthalmologist specializes in diagnosis and treatment of eye
diseases and disorders
11.
Orthopedist specializes in correcting deformities of the
musculo-skeletal system by means of surgery
12.
Pediatrician specializes in the care and treatment of children
13.
Psychiatrist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of
mental disorders
14.
Radiologist specializes in the use of X-rays and the diagnosis
and treatment of diseases
15.
Surgeon- treats diseases, injuries and deformities by operation
16.
Urologist- specializes in abnormalities and diseases of the gastrourinary tract

Health Insurance
Health insurance is a way by which people try to protect themselves
from the high costs of medical care. Existing insurance programs are usually
designed for health services coverage that would provide citizens with
quality health care at a stipulated premium. There are two types of medical
insurance programs: public and private voluntary programs.

The Philippine Medical Program

At present, it is hospital-oriented, meaning; it imposes the condition
that in order to be entitled to its benefits, a member must be sufficiently ill
as to require confinement. This limitation is temporary and is dictated by the
limited finances of the program.
The package of benefits that Medicare presently offers consists of
hospitalization including operating room, medical, surgical, medicine and

anesthesiologist expense benefits. The balance that the hospital and

professional charges over those paid by Medicare is to be shouldered by the
members themselves.
Those in government service are covered by the Government Service
Insurance System (GSIS), while those in the private sector are covered by the
Social Security System (SSS). Both ht e GSIS and SSS, as far as medical
service is concerned, fall under the supervision of the Philippine Medical care
Commission.

Other Government Programs

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

There are other tax-supported medical cares such as:

military dependents
military personnel
merchant seamen
veterans in hospitals and clinics
those with special communicable diseases such as tuberculosis
those with mental illness
children or adults with crippling conditions
provisions of general hospitals and rural health units in the cities and
provinces

Submitted By:
Submitted To:
IV-1 Sampaguita
Matienzo
Gerlie O. Garrido
Teacher
Adora Amparo A. Alcance
CAT IV
Sahara Mae C. Reyes
Glesy S. Macaraeg
Diane T. Janapin
Arlene D. Arellano
Mark Anthony E. Manglicmot
Julian R. Amin
Billy Jake A. Mercurio
Ryoji C. Yamamoto

Mr. Emerlindo C.

MAPEH-