Establishment of the Philippine birth defects surveillance

Abstract

Congenital anomalies have been in the top ten causes of infant mortality in the Philippines for the past 50 years. Since there is no systematic surveillance for congenital anomalies in our country, there are no specific programs directed toward better understanding of this group of patients. The Birth Defects Surveillance Project was conceived in 2008 to develop a system of reporting of newborns with birth defects at the hospital and community setting. The lead agencies for this project are the University of the Philippines Manila - National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health (DOH). This paper describes the establishment of the Philippine Birth Defects Surveillance.