MANILA - In celebration of the 5th World Birth Defects Day, the March of Dimes (MOD) together with World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) organized a webinar entitled: “Saving Lives of Babies with Birth Defects and Improving their Quality of Life” last March 03, 2021 (CET).
This webinar aimed to promote quality of care and universal health coverage for children with birth defects and to bring to light different perspectives and the need for this advocacy. Among the panelists was Dr. Carmencita D. Padilla, Professor of Pediatrics, Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Manila, where she shared the success story of the newborn screening program of the country.
After the webinar, MOD hosted a twitter chat that fostered important virtual discussions with various organizations from all over the world. The Volunteer Youth Leaders for Health – Philippines whose advocacy includes the promotion of folic acid in the prevention of birth defects, participated actively in this unique event.
Dr. Padilla also attended the Rare Disease Day Policy event, a Call for a UN Resolution on Persons Living with a Rare Disease, "Why a UN Resolution and Why Now" on March 3, 2021 (CET). The overarching goal of the event is to position persons living with a rare disease (PLWRD) as a priority population in need of global and national policies that address their needs and contribute to achieving the UN 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals and their pledge to ‘leave no one behind’. At this event, the proposal from the rare disease civil society community, with the support of a number of UN Member States, is to adopt a UN General Assembly Resolution that can act as a catalyst towards this goal.#
WATCH: Rare Disease Day Policy Event, a Call for a UN Resolution
Published in the UP Manila Newsletter HealthScape
Special COVID-19 Issue No. 25 (15 March 2021)
Published by the UP Manila - Information, Publication, and
Public Affairs Office (IPPAO)
