ThyroMobile Medical Mission Launch in Baguio-Benguet

The Thyromobile Launch in Baguio – Benguet is an auspicious event as it marks the second official Medical Mission of Thyromobile (after Dagupan, Pangasinan last April 11) to the Top 15 Provinces identified by the DOST-Food & Nutrition Research Institute as iodine deficient area afflicting women of reproductive age, especially the pregnant & lactating.

On May 18, 2023, the day before the official launch, the Salinas Foods team which is responsible for conducting salt tests for iodine levels. visited the Baguio City Health Services Office. The team organized a WYD Iodine Checker training course and hands-on demonstration for 14 Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) participants. They brought salt samples for salt analysis and learned how to operate the machine. The purpose of this training was to train the BNS in Baguio City to serve as a guide for local iodized salt product regulation.

The official launch of ThyroMobile at Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center began on May 19th and started with a press conference with 11 media representatives, specifically, Amianan Balita Ngayon, Philippine Information Agency-Cordillera Administrative Re- gion, Regional News Group-Luzon, DZRD Sonshine Radio-SMNI North Luzon, DZWT, and the Baguio City Public Information Office.

The first part of the program launch consisted of the capacity-building activity led by the Country Rep- resentative of Iodine Global Network and the Coordinator of Thyromobile Philippines, Dr Teofilo San Luis Jr who explained the different diagnostic services offered by the Thyromobile.  This was followed by a lecture on “Goiter and Pregnancy” by Dr. Nenuel Angelo Luna.

The second part of the program launch was the provision of ThyroMobile services to women of rep-roductive age (WRA) consisting of goiter screening by neck palpation of all WRA, blood testing for thyroid hormone (TSH, FT4), urine collection for iodine concentration (UIC) and the household salt testing for iodine.  A total of 37 pregnant and lactating women participants were the bene-ficiaries of the free services of the ThyroMobile project.

The 2-day event conducted by ThyroMobile was coordinated by Dr Juanito Olpindo and Dr Ely Puguon of BGHMC. Julies Bakeshop Kayang-Hilltop Baguio City Branch provided 50 pcs of banana cupcakes and 100 pcs of ensaymada as a courtesy to the guests.