Bohol proposes Sundown

Clinics for HIV prevention

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol Dec 1 (PIA) –Bohol is proposing to the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) funding for a partnership in Human Immune deficiency Virus (HIV) prevention, by setting up Sundown Clinics, as local health authorities seek more measures to tackle the problem from all sides.

The proposal is now backed by reports of a sudden spike in HIV with 193 cases recorded in Bohol, and the presence of at least one case in every town, reports Provincial Health Officer Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez, Friday, during the Capitol Reports.

What is even more alarming is that cases still increasing while campaigns for voluntary testing still not getting much traction.

The proposal, originating from Ron Zapatos of Jagna, puts up clinic services from 5 pm onwards, when most working people can have spare time to visit the clinic and get free testing, education and counseling sessions and other allied services, explains Dr. Emerson Mateo, Provincial Health Officer II at the Provincial Health Office (PHO).

He added that with the stigma associated with HIV and its acute case of Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Dr. Mateo said it would help if people get to the clinics with few people seeing.

Both medical practitioners also believe that an effective disease prevention can work here as most people living with HIV and those who do not have it admit there is lack of information about the of the disease, which led to its spread.

It would also have a sort of hygiene clinics, serving patients by educating and monitoring them, and securing follow-up check-ups for sustained services and protection.

HIV is an infection that attacks the body’s immune system, which leads to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in its most advanced stage of the disease.

A viral disease that is spread from body fluids including breast milk, blood, semen and vaginal fluids of an infected person, through sexual intercourse, use of contaminated needles and mother to baby infection.

Once the virus gets into the body, it attacks white blood cells, weakening the immune system, making it easier for other kinds of infections to get serious, and if not managed well, can lead to death.

And while HIV has no cure, its spread can be prevented with antiretroviral therapy (ART).

ART works in such a way that it keeps the viral load of a victim under minimum levels so it could not be transmitted, according to Provincial Health Officer II Dr. Emerson Mateo, during the weekly Capitol Reports.

As there has not been any known cure for AIDS, or advanced HIV, democratizing access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, including for opportunistic infections, infection can be managed enabling persons living with HIV to live longer and healthier lives.

As for his part, Dr. Mateo said Bohol needs to start spreading awareness [about HIV and AIDS] from the schools onwards.

Even then, health authorities said from their end, hospitals and health facilities in the local government units are now operationalizing an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development that makes essential goods, health and other services available to all people, prioritizing the underprivileged, sick, elderly, disabled, women and children at affordable costs, and free medical scare to the poorest of the poor.

Bohol and its local government units signed an Inter-LGU Cooperation memorandum of agreement which set up a Special Health Fund managed by the Provincial Health Board for programs, projects and activities on health with LGUS contributing from their health trust funds. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN. Bohol health authorities blare the alarm over a spike in HIV Cases, mostly involving 12-20 years old. While most areas with tourism activities suffer the same fate, the fact that all owns already have cases mean that there is already a spill over from tourism areas and that most victims do not know how they could have prevented getting HIV, comments Drs. Cesar Tomas Lopez and Emerson Mateo of the PHO. (PIAbohol)