Mindanaotoday.com | HIV cases alarm students in Oro
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Two public health advocates, both experienced epidemiologists, confirmed Wednesday, November 23, life-long human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in Cagayan de Oro and the rest of Northern Mindanao have been on an uptrend the past seven years.
In a news conference, Dr. David Mendoza, Department of Health-10 local support services chief, and Dr. Teodulfo Joselito Retuya Jr., City Health Office’s Social Hygiene Clinic head, praised student leaders from Xavier University Ateneo de Cagayan (XUAC) for advocating HIV testing and counselling.
So far, almost a thousand students from four institutions of higher learning in Cagayan de Oro have pre-registered for a three-day at-no-cost HIV tests at a downtown mall starting Monday, November 28 – four days before the 34th World AIDS Day, December 1.
Although the lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic had affected HIV testing, still there were 34 HIV infections every day in 2021 – way above the 30 per day in 2017 and nine per day in 2012, nationwide, Mendoza said.
The DOH-10 third-in-rank official, however, did not disclose figures for the region, but records from the CHO are indicative of rising HIV infections which, if not properly managed, could lead to deaths.
Retuya, a CHO resident epidemiologist, disclosed that since 2014 until December 2021, there were 718 individuals who were reported to have tested positive for HIV in Cagayan de Oro. But only 397 of them are city residents while the 321 others are mostly from other places in Northern Mindanao.
“In the past, about 2,500 persons get tested for HIV every year, but this number went down in 2020 and 2021 to less than a thousand due to the pandemic,” the CHO official said. “We’re recovering from grounds the past two years.”
The news conference was called after the Jesuit-owned university, through its Central Student Government (CSG) and its Social Involvement and Advocacy Office (SIAO), got commitments of support from the DOH-10 and the City Government of Cagayan de Oro through the CHO, for an HIV-AIDS Advocacy Project.
Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. (PSFI) with a three-year Global Fund grant, and the Oro Pia (Wurtzbach) Community Center are also behind project, the launch of which is set 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 27, at the City Amphitheatre.
“From the responses, we got 955 students who have pre-registered (online) for HIV tests,” said CSG Officer Ed Alison Pairat, who heads the Shuxx – It’s Tough Conversations core.
Pairat said they’re expecting more from walk-ins from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at Centrio Ayala mall garden area.
Aside from XUAC, they also have listed registrants for HIV tests and counselling from PHINMA-Cagayan de Oro College, Liceo de Cagayan University, and state-owned University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP).
He said to avoid crowding due to influx of pre-registered and walk-in students, they have been issuing reference numbers and assigned specific day and time schedules.
Retuya assured the organizers of the school-based HIV-AIDS Advocacy Project the CHO will accompany those who are found reactive to the treatment hub at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center which is just across the venue of the HIV testing.
He said post-test counselling must be done by those who are HIV-positive and this is called peer-counselling because they are the ones who have first-hand account and experiences.
Aside from peer counselling, case managers tasked to closely monitor one’s adherence to the anti-retroviral therapy (ART) are being deployed in treatment hubs, PSFI Area Regional Coordinator Rasie Jean Dacoco said.
“Constant follow-up will be done for a year,” Dacoco said. “There will be learning group and family development sessions” for all those who test positive, in response to a comment that stigma often starts within the family.
Meanwhile, SIAO Program Officer Keziah Mallorca said the positive responses from XUAC and other schools can be attributed to the “ambassadors” which were designated and were effective in convincing students, amid the rampant misinformation on HIV and AIDS.
To set off the news conference, Project Head Chariefa Al Ali said: “With Cagayan de Oro as the fifth leading city in the country with the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases, XU-CSG is taking action as it spearheads a week-long campaign.”
The campaign is intended “to guide those who are most at risk of getting victimized by widespread misinformation, those who lack access to healthcare, and those who have an unfounded stigma against HIV and AIDS,” Al Ali said. (MT)
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