President meets Filipino liver transplant patients' kin

President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday interacted with the Filipino families of infants, who underwent liver transplant in India.

"Indian medical institutions are working with their counterparts in the Philippines to see how the success rate could be enhanced and the costs of similar transplant in the Philippines brought down," President Kovind tweeted.

He expressed happiness in helping out families in southeast Asian country.

In the last 28 months, 35 babies from the Philippines have underwent successful liver transplant in India under the Philippines-India Pediatric Liver Transplant Programme, an special initiative.

Appreciating the people-to-people connect with the key southeast Asian country, Kovind said he was delighted with Philippines engagement with India as it has brought "people's causes and life-giving projects within its expanding ambit."

Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted that the President paid special attention to stories of liver transplant performed on Filipino infants.

"President of India listened to stories of liver transplantation performed on Filipino infants by Indian doctors at Max and Apollo Hospitals to cure biliary atresia. Filipino chapter of FICCI is supporting poor patients to meet the cost of treatment," Kumar tweeted.

Reportedly, medical procedures, like liver transplant is extremely expensive in the Philippines, and the government is struggling to cut costs down.

According to the Philippine Star newspaper in August, the country is facing issues, like unavailability of highly specialised medical equipment, lack of training for medical personnel, especially for liver transplantation, and highly expensive medicines, which push high the cost of the treatment in the country.

Thus, patients look out for cheaper options in countries like India, it added.

( With inputs from IANS )