Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) is a public health concern in the Philippines since 1983. It is now a growing threat to public health and to the shellfish industry of the country. A total of 2, 107 PSP cases with 117 fatalities have been reported since 1983 and enormous economic losses in the fisheries sector have been incurred. To avoid the occurrence of PSP and prevent economic losses monitoring program has been undertaken. However, the present monitoring and management system needs improvement to address effectively and efficiently the problems associated with the occurrence of Pyrodinium blooms and its concomitant PSP episodes.
Localizing the PSP monitoring system in the Philippines to better address the growing threats of PSP episode in the country is necessary. This paper presents the status and limitation of the current monitoring program and discusses the proposed system on localizing the PSP monitoring in the Philippines.