DOH-CHD9
regional coordinator for blood, HIV and AIDS programs Claire Jose said the
training was concerned primarily on gay population saying that DOH have seen a
significant increase of HIV cases in which MSMs are mostly affected. “With
this, we are scaling up an intervention particularly for the said group,” Jose
added.
The
seminar was attended by nurses, government employees, gays and other concerned
individuals who wanted to gain more knowledge on the dreaded disease. Per
information gathered from Ms. Jose, there are 47 recorded cases of HIV/AIDS in
Zamboanga Peninsula and there are also clients on standby, waiting for the
confirmatory test results from DOH.
“Before,
we were looking at one case per day but now, we are looking at 3 cases for every 6 hours. We are also focusing at the
Western Pacific region wherein we belong. We are one of the 7 countries that recorded
a significant increase of HIV/AIDS cases. The data is quite alarming,” Jose
reported.
She
said as early as now, we will educate everybody especially those who are
engaging in multiple sex partners to prevent people from getting infected with
HIV.
Zamboanga
del Sur Medical Center nurse supervisor Minerva Ducao sees the importance of the
seminar since medical personnel are engaged in health teaching and offer
counseling to patients.
Philippine
Red Cross blood donor recruitment officer Dorie Ortiz said the seminar is also very
essential since PRC screens the blood of donors to detect if it is infected
with HIV or not.
“We
need to be informed on the symptoms of HIV/AIDS since we are dealing with blood
to save lives. We have to assure our
clients that the blood we give them is clean and not infected with HIV,” Ortiz
said. (JPA/ALT/PIA,Pagadian City)
