5/28/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly 1. The seafarer’s work must involve the risks describe herein; 2. The disease was contracted as a result of the seafarer’s exposure to the describe[d] risks; 3. The disease was contracted within a period of exposure and under such other factors necessary to contract it; 4. There was no notorious negligence on the part of the seafarer. x x x (Emphasis supplied) Victor miserably failed to comply with these conditions. While pulmonary tuberculosis is listed as an occupational disease, the Court is not convinced that Victor’s pulmonary tuberculosis is work-acquired or work-aggravated because if it were so, then at the outset, Victor should have already been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis when he sought medical help one month from his repatriation. Instead, Dr. Ayuyao diagnosed him with Community Acquired Pneumonia I and Bronchial Asthma[34] – sicknesses which aside from being different from pulmonary tuberculosis, were not shown to have any relation thereto. Furthermore, while it is undisputed that Victor’s work as a Galley Boy/2nd Cook involved the risks provided in the POEA Contract (first condition), i.e., overwork or fatigue and exposure to rapid variations in temperature, there was failure to prove that the TB was contracted as a result of his exposure to the said described risks (second condition). No evidence on record shows how Victor’s working conditions caused or aggravated his TB. On the contrary, Victor himself acknowledged that he worked under normal conditions while on board the vessel. Likewise, the third and fourth conditions were not satisfied. There was no credible evidence on record to prove that the TB was contracted within a period of exposure and under such other factors necessary to contract it. Neither is there substantial evidence presented to show that his working conditions activated the disease-causing organism that may be dormant in his system. As pointed out by both parties, pulmonary tuberculosis is airborne and easily transmissible by infected patients. The risk of being infected, or acquiring, the tuberculosis infection is mainly determined by exogenous factors.[35] The probability of contact with a case of tuberculosis, the intimacy and duration of that contact, the degree of infectiousness of the case, and the shared environment of the contact are all important determinants of transmission.[36] On the other hand, the risk of developing the disease after being infected is largely dependent on endogenous factors.[37] The tuberculosis bacteria may lie dormant in the infected person’s immune system for years before it becomes reactivated, or he may ultimately develop the disease within the first year or two after infection, depending on the innate susceptibility to disease of the person and level of immunity.[38] Simply put, there are so many possibilities how and when Victor could have acquired pulmonary tuberculosis. It is “[t]he oft repeated rule x x x that whoever claims entitlement to the benefits provided by law should establish his x x x right thereto by substantial elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/57627 9/19