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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

DOH conducts Seminar on scaling up intervention on STI/HIV AIDS

By Alma L. Tingcang

PAGADIAN CITY, Sept. 26 (PIA) – In a bid to educate people about the risks of Sexually Transmitted Infections/Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (STI/HIV/AIDS), a 3-day seminar on scaling up intervention on STI/HIV/AIDS among males having sex with males (MSMs) was conducted by the Department of Health-Center for Health and Development (DOH-CHD9) in partnership with the Global Fund at Hotel Guillermo on September 19-21 here.

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)