The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for healthcare professionals to reflect on priorities amid limited resources, uncertainty, and public fear. Effective communication of epidemiological data, including context and testing volume, is crucial for public understanding and response. Strengthening local health surveillance systems and incorporating symptom-based reporting can guide timely interventions, especially where testing is limited.

The objectives of these guidelines are: (1) To offer key principles in two specific ethical dilemmas that are expected to occur during the pandemic; (2) To offer suggestions on how leaders of health care institutions can set up a mechanism for ethical consult and deliberation during the pandemic.

1. To provide frontline responders a guide in making ethical decisions in management of the emergent COVID-19 crisis situation.
2. To diminish potential distress for clinicians when decisions involve conflict between patient-centered care and public health duties

The Hippocratic Oath, adopted by the State as a prerequisite for medical licensure, reflects the longstanding ethical mandate that physicians must first do no harm. However, this duty becomes complex in situations involving epidemics or communicable diseases, where a physician must balance the obligation to treat against personal risk.

Obesity has been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular diseases. This study primarily aims to determine the prevalence of obesity among the Filipino patients in our institution since there have been no previous studies on this subset of patients.

Nonketotic hyperglycemia among type 2 diabetic patients have recently been documented to cause the rare movement disorder called Hemichorea-hemiballism syndrome which is a hyperkinetic movement disorder presenting as a continuous, non-patterned, involuntary movements caused by a basal ganglia dysfunction. This is a case of a 76-year-old male with a known history of hypertension and no history of stroke and diabetes presented with a 10-day history of increasingly persistent involuntary movements of the right extremities.

There is no documentation of the causes of hospitalization among lupus patients in the Philippines in recent times and this study hopes to fill in this knowledge gap. Thus, this study reports the outcomes of hospitalizations among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) admitted at the charity wards of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH).

Activation of angiogenesis stimulated by Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in host cells play a role in response to damaged gastric mucosal in gastritis patient with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. The study showed that presence of polymorphisms in VEGF gene is associated with an increased risk of several disorders like gastric cancer. Infiltration of neutrophils in the gastric mucosa characterized acute gastritis. It can become chronic inflammation characterized by lymphocyte infiltration. This condition will complicate glandular atrophy and intestinal metaplasia in the gastric mucosal epithelium and subsequently cause gastric malignancy. The aim of this study to analyze association between VEGF +936 C>T polymorphism gene with degree of neutrophils and lymphocytes infiltration in gastritis patients with H. pylori.

Dietary intervention remains an important factor in the management of diabetes mellitus, and many patients have employed herbs and oils to help manage their chronic diseases. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is widely known for its cardio-vascular benefits. However, its effect on the blood glucose of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients has not been extensively studied. In this study, we aimed to determine if the addition of EVOO to meals results in a lower postprandial blood glucose among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Persistent carotid-basilar anastomoses are potentially clinically relevant anomalies of the intracranial vasculature. The trigeminal artery is the largest and persists for the longest embryonic period among the anastomoses. The increasing use of arteriographic procedures has augmented its incidence to 0.1-1%. This is a case of a 39-year-old male who presented with acute occipital lobe infarct after sustaining a traumatic right carotid dissection.

Bamboo node is a rare vocal cord pathology causing dysphonia among patients with autoimmune disorders. These “bamboo-joint-like” transverse deposits on the vocal cords interfere with the vibratory cycle during phonation leading to voice hoarseness. A review of Schwemmle from 1993-2009, showed seven cases of bamboo node among patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). With the patient’s consent, this case is presented to contribute to current knowledge about MCTD.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the severe complications in dengue hemorrhagic fever, usually occurred in shock. We report an interesting case of AKI in a hemodynamically stable dengue hemorrhagic fever patient.

Colo-cutaneous fistula is a very rare compli-cation of colonic diverticular disease, occurring in approximately one percent of cases either spontaneously or after surgical or drainage procedure. Herein we describe a patient with a colo-cutaneous fistula from the sigmoid to the appendiceal stump in a post-appendectomy patient which also exits to the skin at the post-operative site.

Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) and central nervous system (CNS) infection are two significant complications of SLE where mortality is high. Differentiating the two diseases could help deliver appropriate and timely therapeutic strategies that impact mortality in patients with SLE particularly in cases where confusions due to overlapping symptoms delay early interventions.