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Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Bacolod City has seven new HIV cases
By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
BACOLOD CITY -- Bacolod City has seven new cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) with patients either married to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) or who have worked abroad themselves.
Denia Hiballes, health education and promotion officer, told the Department of Health (DOH) that the patients are now in constant contact with her for proper counseling and referral for their medical needs.
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They are treated at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMH) I through its HIV-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Aids) Core Team, which was created to specifically attend to HIV patients' medical concerns.
Hiballes said cases of HIV-Aids in Bacolod City is "fast growing," adding that three already died -- two of them gays and the other one a commercial sex worker (CSW).
She said her office is constantly conducting lectures on HIV-Aids with CSWs, gays, and OFWs, among others as audiences, to inform them of the danger of this dreaded disease.
She also stressed that an HIV positive person is a definite potent carrier of Aids.
Manifestation of Aids symptoms may take about seven to 10 years, depending on the person's resistance, Hiballes explained. Aids victims, she added, may live normal lives and are healthy until the virus attacks their body.
The disease remains incurable although a medicine has been discovered to slow down the spread of the virus, said Hiballes.
She also urged Bacolenos and Negrenses who are now suffering from HIV-Aids to come out in the open and avail of proper counseling and medication.
"Those who wish to undergo an HIV-Aids test can personally see me at the City Health Office for counseling before they will be referred to CLMMH. The process takes about two weeks to be completed because the blood samples are (still) brought to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila," said Hiballes. (Sun.Star Bacolod/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (April 1, 2008 issue)
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