The provision of culturally competent health care is an important professional issue recognized by the pioneer genetic counselors in the Philippines. Being an archipelago consisting of 7,107 islands, the Philippines has approximately 175 ethnolinguistic groups with their own unique cultural identity and health practices. The emphasis on culture in our genetic counseling training recognizes its crucial role in molding an individual's conceptualization of health, as well as other life aspects, especially since the Filipino culture is a mixture of indigenous as well as imported and borrowed elements. As part of this endeavor, we will describe in this paper seven common Filipino cultural beliefs: namamana, lihi, sumpa, gaba, pasma, namaligno, and kaloob ng Diyos. We will also share examples on how these common beliefs provide explanation as cause of illness and its implications in our genetic counseling profession.

Introduction. Birth defects or congenital anomalies are a major global concern. An estimated 7.9 million children are born worldwide each year. Birth defects are among the top ten leading causes of infant deaths in the Philippines for more than six decades. The objectives of this study were to: 1) determine the frequency of birth defects among patients seen at the Outpatient Department (OPD) of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) from 2000 to 2010; 2) describe the birth defects by organ systems and presentation (isolated, part of a recognizable syndrome, chromosomal syndrome or multimalformed case); 3) present the distribution of patients by geographic origin; 4) describe the birth defects according to age group and organ system; and 5) compare the data from this study to the previously published report among admitted patients at PGH in the same time period. Methods. Medical records of new patients seen at the PGH OPD from 2000 to 2010 were reviewed. Medical records that included written diagnosis of any of the following International Classification of Diseases (ICD) -10 codes (Q 00 – Q 99, P 35.0, P 83.5, K40, H49.0, H50.0, H50.1, H53.0, H54.42, H54.7, and H55.01) were considered birth defect cases. Results. Out of the 804,410 new patients at the PGH OPD from 2000 to 2010, 12,827 patients (1.59%) had a diagnosis of at least one major structural birth defect. The most common birth defects were cardiovascular, digestive, genital organ and nervous system anomalies. The top 5 anomalies in this report were: congenital malformations of cardiac septa, other congenital malformations not elsewhere classified, cleft palate with cleft lip, congenital hydrocoele, and congenital hydrocephalus. The highest percentage of birth defects were from the < 1 age group (40.3%), followed by the 1 to 4 age group (29%) and the 5 to 9 age group (14.6%). NCR, Region IV-A and Region III had the highest percentages of patients with birth defects, 51.4%, 26.03% and 10.97%, respectively. Conclusion. This study revealed a prevalence of birth defects among PGH OPD patients of 1.59%. The most common birth defects were possibly surgically correctable reflecting the nature of PGH as a referral center. Majority of patients affected were in the under-5 population. The study reflects the importance of a birth defects surveillance to develop policies on strategies that will reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality secondary to preventable birth defects like congenital rubella syndrome that can be aborted by a successful immunization program. The birth defects surveillance will generate data that will support strengthening the regional hospitals with a better complement of specialists and capability for both medical and surgical management of the patients.

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The Volunteer Youth Leaders for Health - Philippines (VYLHPhilippines) is a national youth network established in 2009 as a model of how to organize young women and men into a national force that promotes self-learning, independence, personal growth and sustained positive public health change from the grassroots level and up. Formed under the aegis of the University of the Philippines Manila and the Department of Health, the VYLH-Philippines has focused its activities in the past eight years on helping reduce mortality and disability from congenital disorders through awareness programs and support for policy development. This paper describes in detail the organization and extraordinary accomplishments of the VYLHPhilippines to date.