Dr. Manuel Dayrit:
HUMAN RESOURCES IN HEALTH - AN EXPENSIVE AND LIMITED RESOURCE
Dr. Manuel M. Dayrit joined the World Health Organization in August 2005. He leads the HRH Department which is mandated to provide global guidance and country support towards developing a sustainable health workforce in countries, particularly those with critical shortages of health personnel. Scaling up the education of health workers towards their equitable distribution and effective performance are critical concerns. The adoption of the Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel during the May 2010 World Health Assembly was a milestone in global public health to which Dr. Dayrit and the HRH Department contributed significantly.
Dr. Dayrit was Secretary of Health (Minister) of the Philippines from February 2001 to May 2005. Under his guidance, national coverage of social insurance doubled from 30 to 60%, lower priced generic medicines became more widely available through the government supply chain, the national TB control program achieved its global targets, and SARS was contained to 14 cases during the SARS epidemic of 2003. He led 2 national immunization campaigns to stop the spread of the vaccine-derived polio virus, immunizing 12 million children in each round. During his term, the Department of Health was highly regarded by the public and the media for its measures to fight corruption. Dr. Dayrit gained wide recognition for his transparency and leadership as evidenced by high approval ratings in public opinion surveys and citations from private sector and non-governmental stakeholders.
Dr. Dayrit began his public health career 33 years ago. Working with his wife Elvira as community physicians in the villages of Davao del Norte, Mindanao during the martial law period, he trained community health workers, organized community-based TB programs and coordinated rural health programs across the different dioceses of the Catholic Church in Mindanao, Southern Philippines. During this time, he also taught at the Davao Medical School which was established in 1977 to educate doctors for the Mindanao region. In 1980, Dr. Dayrit became a founding member of the Asian Community Health Action Network (ACHAN) which sought to promote community-based health action in Asia.
A government civil servant for 17 years, Dr. Dayrit joined the Department of Health in 1984 as an epidemiologist at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. He was the founding director of the Philippine Field Epidemiology Training Program in 1986 and directed it till 1997. He rose through the ranks with involvement in diverse areas such as infectious disease control, regulation of blood banks and clinical laboratories, and public information and health education. For his work in AIDS, cholera, and red tide, he was named Outstanding Young Scientist by the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines in 1990. He has written articles in the areas of community health, communicable disease control, and public health leadership.
Dr. Dayrit's private sector experience includes working as Vice-President for Medical Services of Aetna HMO, a local subsidiary of the multinational private health insurance firm. He also worked for a Filipino-owned pharmaceutical company, United Laboratories Inc., setting up its Office of Regulatory Affairs and a health maintenance organization to service its employees.
A Bachelor of Arts honors graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University, Dr. Dayrit earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of the Philippines in 1976. In 1981-82, as a British Council scholar he completed a Master of Science in Community Health in Developing Countries with a mark of distinction at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). In 2006, in recognition of his public health service to his country and international community, Dr. Dayrit was made an Honorary Fellow of LSHTM. He has served as the LSHTM Alumni President since 2007.