Friday , 29 March 2024
Sarci Razon, from Solaire Resort and Casino representing BCFI (left), and Fernando Zobel De Ayala, President and Chief Operating Officer of Ayala Corp. at the Tropical Disease Foundation office during the launch of the partnership with AC Health and the TDF.

Bloomberry Foundation ties up with Tropical Disease Foundation for added testing capacity

The Bloomberry Cultural Foundation Inc (BCFI) and the Ayala Group’s healthcare unit, Ayala Healthcare Holdings, Inc. (AC Health), have partnered with the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF) to add to the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity.

With the TDF now accredited by the Department of Health and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, the partnership effectively adds to the country’s ability  to conduct confirmatory RT-PCR tests while contributing to the country’s health care system overall. 

Donato C. Almeda, BCFI president, said:  “We are happy to partner with AC Health and TDF and in our own way contribute to the Department of Health’s and the Inter-agency Task Force’s Project T3 (Test, Trace, Treat), which has proven effective in curbing the pandemic.” 

An existing Biosafety Level 2+ lab and a specialty laboratory in tuberculosis research located in Makati City, the TDF can initially process 200 confirmatory RT-PCR tests daily. 

BCFI donated to the TDF lab RT-PCR machines and equipment such as PCR and RNA extraction kits, biological safety cabinets, and a laboratory-grade refrigerator, among others.

TDF med-tech using the RT-PCR machines donated by BCFI.

The partnership has been the latest initiative of BCFI to assist in government and private efforts to fight COVID-19.  This is also BCFI’s second partnership with the Ayala Group, the first being the retrofitting of a unit at the Philippine General Hospital as a treatment facility.  Past and continuing BCFI initiatives include its active provision of medical supplies and personal protective equipment to numerous hospitals in the National Capital Region and nearby provinces.  It has also retrofitted facilities to become treatment facilities, and has distributed relief goods and supplies.

TDF is a private, non-stock, non-profit organization that seeks to control and prevent the spread of infectious diseases with public through research, training and timely and relevant service.  It conducts clinical, operational, and laboratory-based researches on infectious diseases with public and private agencies at the national and international level for research programs to facilitate technology transfer.  It also serves as a national and international training center for infectious disease management.

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