Provincial Consultative Meeting on International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) @ 15 (Part 5)

Resource Speaker: Dr. Alejo S. Aralar DOH-CHD Bicol Medical Specialist He presentated the health situation in Bicol region The regional statistics revealed Bicol’s population is 5,497,200 as of 2008. Camarines Sur has the highest population among the provinces with 1,830,100 or 33.29% followed closely by Albay province with 1,268,000 or 23.01%, Masbate - 835,800 or 15.20%, Sorsogon - 771,500 or 14.03 %, Camarines Norte - 544,500 or 9.91 % and the island province of Catanduanes with 247,300 total or 4.50%. Among the seven cities in Bicol, Legazpi has the highest population with 181,501 or 3.30 %, followed by Naga with 161,722 or 2.94 %, Tabaco - 123,882 or 2.25% Sorsogon - 109,033 or 1.98%, Ligao - 104,736 or 1.91 %, Iriga - 104,317 or 1.89% and Masbate with 83,922 or 1.53%. There are 116 hospitals across the region. Of them, 66 are private hospitals and 50 are government-run. Albay province has the most number of private hospitals with 27 followed by Camarines Sur with 13, Camarines Norte - 9, Masbate - 8, Sorsogon - 6 and Catanduanes with 3. On public health facilities, Camarines Sur has the most numberl with 13, followed by Albay, Sorsogon and Masbate with 9 each, Catanduanes - 7 and Camarines Norte with 3. There are 124 rural health units and 1,123 total barangay health stations across the region. On crude birth rate as of last year, records showed Masbate has the highest number of birth rate per 1,000 population at 23.63% followed by Camarines Norte at 22.75%, Albay - 22.37%, Sorsogon - 21.8%, Catanduanes - 19.94% and Camarines Sur at 19.91%. On highly urbanized cities, Legazpi has the highest at 25.67% followed by Iriga at 23.46% percent and Naga at 20.18%. Bicol’s crude birth rate declined to 21.56% in 2008 compared to 2003 - 2007 rate of 22.55%. On crude death rate by province, Catanduanes ranked first with 5.44% per 1,000 population followed by Sorsogon at 4.64%, Albay - 4.53 percent, Camarines Norte - 4.52 %, Camarines Sur -3.79 % and Masbate at 3.63%. Among the urbanized cities, crude death rate per was highest in Naga City at 7.12%, followed by Legazpi - 6.36%, and Iriga - 5.78 percent. Crude death rate in 2008 declined to 4.4 percent compared to 4.6% in 2003 - 2007. The most alarming issue discussed by Dr. Aralar was the rising infant mortality rate in Bicol due to pneumonia, maternal mortality prevalence caused by complications related to pregnancy occurring during delivery and post delivery periods, and abortion cases. Legazpi City has the highest infant mortality rate in 2008 at 17.75% per 1,000 live births followed by Naga City at 15.9%, and Iriga City - 14.3 %. Among the provinces, Camarines Norte ranked first at 14.85% followed by Masbate at 11.34%, Catanduanes - 9.33%, Camarines Sur - 8.48 %, Albay - 7.67% and Sorsogon at 6.84%. The leading causes of infant mortality are pneumonia and malnutrition and inability to buy medicines due to poverty. Data showed that about 9.93 percent per 1,000 babies in Bicol succumbed to pneumonia and most of them are attributed to nutritional problems. On maternal mortality prevalence per province, Sorsogon had the highest followed by Masbate and Albay. Among the highly urbanized cities, Legazpi ranked first followed by Iriga and Naga.