THE Reproductive Health and Wellness Center (RHWC) of the Davao City Health Office (CHO) is giving out free condoms and lubricants as protection against sexually transmitted diseases especially that Valentine's Day is fast approaching.
RHWC Head Dr. Jordana Ramiterre told SunStar Davao in a phone interview that they are continuously giving contraceptives for interested individuals or couples as part of their advocacy on safe sex.
Ramiterre said the center still has contraceptive supplies, which can be availed in their office.
The health official emphasized the need to practice safe sex to reduce the probability of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, hepatitis B, and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/Aids).
"The key to prevent HIV is ABCDE which stands for abstinence, be mutually faithful to your partner, consistent and correct use of condoms, don't use drugs and early detection and education," she said.
The health official also cautioned the public from having sexual intercourse with random strangers.
"Aside from HIV, we also have to be careful about Covid-19 as well, especially pag di natin gaano kakilala 'yung kahalobilo natin (if we barely know the person whom we are interacting with)," Ramiterre said.
Aside from giving out contraceptives, she added they are also providing other interventions such as free counseling and HIV/Aids testing.
Ramiterre, however, said their operation is under limited capacity due to the measures imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19
The health official admitted that the pandemic and the lockdown imposed has affected the testings, therapy, and other intervention for people living HIV/Aids.
"Ever since, wala man naundang atong services (our services never stopped), even with the pandemic. Naghinay lang ta for awhile, particularly tong ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] kay mga tao wala pa nanggawas (Although it slowed down for a while since the city was placed under ECQ because people were restricted from going out), and everyone is cautious when going out to avail services," she said.
She also said they modified their approach in STI screening.
Even their confirmatory testing was also affected since the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, one of the HIV confirmatory test laboratories in the country, is currently focused on the Covid-19 response, causing delay and pending tests left unattended.
She said, however, that RHWC and the Southern Philippines Medical Center are already preparing for a confirmatory site for HIV test results last year, which will be catering to tests in Davao Region.
According to the Department of Health HIV/Aids and ART Registry of the Philippines (Harp), there are now a total of 81,169 HIV and Aids cases reported from January 1984 to October 2020. In October 2020, there were a total of 735 confirmed HIV-positive individuals. Ninety-six percent (704) of whom were male.
Among the total 81,169, 94-percent (76,216) were male and more than half or 51-percent (41,163) were 25 to 34 years old at the time of diagnosis.
Moreover, the regions with the most number of reported cases were NCR with 30,622 cases (38 percent), Calabarzon with 12,467 (15 percent), Central Luzon with 8,005 (10 percent), Central Visayas with 6,827 (8 percent), and Davao Region with 4,477 (6 percent).
But Ramiterre said that based on their data as of November 2020, Davao Region's ranking in the most number of HIV/Aids cases went down from fifth or sixth spot to 12th spot.
"Although this may not be the real picture, because kadtong reactive test wala pa siya na-confirm (those who were tested with reactive results have not yet undergone confirmatory testing)," she said.
In order to improve their services, she said the city government recently added additional personnel for RHWC such as case manager and community outreach health workers.
Ramiterre said this will help them in widening their services within the community, especially to those persons with HIV who are undergoing antiretroviral treatment, and in need of counseling.