THE Davao City Reproductive Health and Wellness Center (RHWC) urged pregnant women in their first trimester to undergo free human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing at the RHWC facilities to know their status and protect the unborn baby from getting infected.
"Tanan pregnant gina-encourage na mag-undergo og HIV testing kay para if ever nga ma-found out didto nga mag-positive si mother, so kailangan siya mag-inom ug gamot as soon as possible. Kung maka-inom ug gamot, definitely taas ang chances nga maprotektahan nga dili ma-transmit ang HIV (sa bata)," said Eddie Batoon, community health outreach worker of Aids Society of the Philippines–RHWC.
(We encourage pregnant women to get tested. Should they be found positive, they could take medicine to prevent the HIV from getting transmitted to the baby.)
One of the modes of transmission of HIV is from a mother to her infant: during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. If they tested positive and undergo the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), it reduces the chances of mother-to-child transmission.
But Batoon added that not all mothers positive of HIV could get their babies infected during pregnancy, as there is only about 20 to 25 percent risk or chances of transmitting HIV to the baby depending on the level of viral load or the amount of virus acquired by the mother.
The level of viral load could even further go down if regular treatment is done making the baby even safer from infection.
RHWC has partnered with Brokenshire Women Center for the HIV screening. Every Wednesday and Friday, they offer free HIV testing and majority of their clients are pregnant. The test is on a voluntary basis, which could be part of their regular pre-natal check-up.
In fact, this year, Batoon said there were pregnant women who tested positive. He did not divulge the number, though, subject for verification.
“Pag naay pregnant na positive, we refer [them] to SPMC (Southern Philippines Medical Center) para matutukan kay hospital-based siya (If a pregnant woman is tested positive, she is referred to SPMC to get treatment),” he said.
Once the virus has been transmitted to the child, Batoon said it will be there for the rest of their life. But with continuous treatment, it will prolong their life.
The HIV/Aids and ART Registry of the Philippines (Harp), noted that in 2016, the number of reported cases of pregnant women positive of HIV has significantly gone up to 98 as compared to the previous year with 61.
Of the 98, only 60 of them are on ART, which means they are maintaining medicine. As of June 2017, there were 66 HIV positive pregnant women with 43 of them also undergoing free ART.
Since 2011 up to 2017, there have been 281 HIV positive pregnant women, according to Harp.