Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Wendel Tupas-Marcelo bagged two major awards during the 2023 National AMHOP Convention held at L’Fisher Hotel, Bacolod City on June 7, 2023.
The awards were given by the Association of Municipal Health Officers of the Philippines (AMHOP).
Marcelo was named as 2023 GAWAD AMHOP Modelong Doktor.
He was cited for his dedication and commitment to the profession and to the association and for his outstanding accomplishments as the medical officer of Carles.
He also won the award for GAWAD AMHOP Best Project Innovation in Health for his initiative Ugyon sa Nutrisyon sang Carlesanon (United for Nutrition for Carlesanon). The project is an integrated and multi-sectoral approach to addressing malnutrition in the municipality of Carles.
Under Marcelo's leadership, the island municipality of Carles implemented a program to manage children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), one of which was the provision of ready-to-use-therapeutic food (RUTF).
The town also established outpatient therapeutic care (OTC) sites - one on the mainland and one on the island to cater to patients from the geographically isolated and disadvantaged area (GIDA) villages.
SAM children without complications and with good appetite were admitted to the OTC for initiation of treatment and were given routine OTC medications.
Advocacy activities were done as well as community mobilization, training of community health workers, case finding, referral, monitoring and follow-up, and defaulter tracking through home visitation.
The different stakeholders and decision-makers from the municipal level down to the barangay were mobilized. The barangay nutrition scholars and barangay health workers were trained and empowered.
Partnerships with the education, agriculture, and social welfare sectors were established. Households with undernourished children were provided with seeds and were trained in gardening.
The program led to a steady decline in the prevalence of underweight, wasting, stunting and overnutrition in Carles in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Marcelo served as municipal health officer/doctor-to-the-barrio in the municipality of Carles from 2014 to 2022.
