Mindanaotoday.com | DOH-10 pursues 784 HIV patients
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Seven-hundred eighty-four persons, who have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus in Northern Mindanao, could no longer be located, the Department of Health-10 disclosed Friday, May 20, this year.
Of the region’s 2,190 HIV-positive persons since 1991 until February this year, 123 had died while 1,283 are undergoing anti-retrovarial therapy (ART), as shown in the DOH-10 HIV/AIDS Report released that day.
Three of the deaths due to HIV/AIDS-related opportunistic infections were confirmed just two months ago.
But the status of 784 of the 2,067 persons living with HIV (PLHIV), whose specimens tested positive while residing in the region, have yet to be known.
“Please help us track them down,” Assistant Regional Director Ellenietta N. Gamolo told HIV/AIDS advocacy groups in a DOH-10-sponsored 39th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial program in Cagayan de Oro.
“Without you, there could have been more deaths,” Gamolo said, referring to the Misamis Oriental Cagayan de Oro AIDS Network (MOCAN) which has forged linkages with public and private health care providers and non-governmental organizations.
She said that the advocacy to promote responsible sexual relationships must be doubled, even tripled, so as not to overwhelm the DOH-accredited HIV/AIDS treatment hubs, even if getting the infection is no longer a “death sentence” due to the ART.
Aside from MOCAN, those engaged in the HIV/AIDS advocacies include, among others, the Northern Mindanao AIDS Advocates (NORMAA), Alliance Against AIDS Mindanao (Alagad Mindanao), Tingog sa Kasanag (Tisaka), Tingug CDO, and Kagayanon Plus.
“These deaths can now be prevented,” said the DOH-10 official, assuring those who are sexually active that all provinces in the region, except Camiguin, have HIV/AIDS treatment hubs where screening and testing may also be done.
As of February this year, 58 new infections of HIV were detected: Misamis Oriental, 34; Lanao del Norte, 15; Misamis Occidental, six, and Bukidnon, three.
These recent HIV detections brought the cumulative count since 1991 until February this year to 2,190.
Of the 2,190 HIV/AIDS cases in region 10, these were detected in Misamis Oriental 1,261; Bukidnon 367; Lanao del Norte 359; Misamis Occidental 169; and Camiguin 34.
Using the DOH-10 Report, Dr. Wellaflor Brito, the acting head of the region’s infectious disease cluster, said 59% of HIV infections were transmitted by “males having sex with males only” while 28% were due to “males having sex with males and females.”
Brito recalled that during the early detections in the 1990s there were more female cases of HIV infection, but this profile by gender has changed in the last decade.
Today, 96% of all HIV/AIDS cases in Northern Mindanao or 2,093 infections are males (by birth).