The Department of Health’s mobile voluntary counseling and testing program has resulted in increased detection of persons with HIV-AIDS in Region 7 this year, according to Mark Wenceslao of DOH-7.
Speaking at a Kapihan forum Wednesday, he disclosed that records from DOH-7 showed Cebu is number one in the region with 2,304 HIV-AIDs cases from 1984 up to the present. Bohol came in second with 82 cases, Negros Oriental with 52 cases and Siquiijor province with two cases.
In September alone this year, Cebu has 55 new cases, Bohol, five new cases while Negros Oriental and Siquijor had zero new cases, said Wenceslao.
National statistics would show that 24 new cases were recorded every day for the month of October this year.
With the mobile voluntary counseling and testing program, more HIV-aids cases have been detected, according to Wenceslado. With this comes also an increase in the percentage of monitoring and managing these cases that will reduce the possibility of transmission.
Most of those affected in Region 7 are males who inject drugs or males having sex with males numbering about 2,292 as of September 2015 compared to only 246 females
By age group, 802 cases are persons aged 15 to 24 years old, 1,055 for HIV patients aged 25 to 34 years old and 585 cases for persons aged 35 to 49 years old while only 88 cases were recorded for persons aged 50 years old and above.
In Negros Oriental, 52 cases have been recorded so far since 1984, with six deaths, four are males and two are females, according to Cristina Dagle, HIV-AIDS coordinator of the Integrated Provincial Health Office in the province.
She disclosed in the same forum that more than 600 Negrenses have availed of the mobile voluntary counseling and testing conducted in nine local government units in Negros Oriental.
Dagle disclosed that in April this year the treatment satellite hub of the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital was finally given a permit by the national office due to a number of detected cases in the province.
Three of those identified are taking anti-retroviral drugs from the Vicente Sotto hospital in Cebu.
Of the 52 cases in Negros Oriental, 27 are from Dumaguete City while the 25 are coming from the municipalities.
Dagle enjoins the public that if they know of somebody to be into or practicing risky behaviors to consult a doctor for early detection and early treatment so transmission can be controlled.
Once a person is tested positive for HIV, he or she will remain positive throughout his or her life and that life can be prolonged by taking the anti-retroviral drugs, which is given for free, as well as follow a healthy lifestyle.
If in Dumaguete, they can visit the social hygiene clinic.
She said the Dumaguete HIV-AIDS council is intensifying the advocacy with advocates from the academe, non-government organizations and other partner agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development, with capability building sessions and slowly strengthening the care and support groups for HIV-AIDS clients.
According to Ignacio, they’re also capacitating individuals, not just the health workers, so they can be trained on how to care and support persons detected with HIV-AIDS.
Medical services offered at the social hygiene clinic in Dumaguete include voluntary counseling and testing, consultation and testing of other sexually transmitted infections, as well as medications if available.
Ignacio revealed a number of herpes, gonorrhea and syphilis cases in Duamguete but their data is strictly confidential. They can come to the social hygiene clinic without registering their names to remove the stigma, and can access the commodities like condoms and lubricants without asking questions, including the information and education materials. (PNA)
