By Juancho Gallarde/PNA
DUMAGUETE CITY – Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) can now come to the provincial hospital here for check up and treatment, unlike before when they had to go to Cebu, Bacolod or Iloilo.
Dr. Marie Julien Hitosis, physician-in-charge of the HIV-AIDs core team at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH), said this in an interview on Tuesday, even as she admitted that there is a sharp increase in the number of HIV-AIDs patients in Negros Oriental this year.
She noted that while there were only 99 cases in 2017, the number has reached 146 to date, with many of the patients coming from this capital city.
Of the 146 HIV-AIDS patients in the province, 125 are men having sex with men (MSM), while only 21 are female.
Hitosis said patients can now go to the NOPH for treatment as it is now extending anti-retroviral medicines from the central office of the Department of Health in Manila.
She clarified, however, that the anti-retroviral medicine is not a cure for HIV-AIDs; it will only decrease the level of virus infection to boost the immune system and prolong life.
Aside from the anti-retroviral drugs, the NOPH also extends ancillary drugs for tuberculosis (TB) and these are all for free.
Signs and symptoms of HIV-AIDs include flu-like fever, weight loss, headache, loss of appetite, pneumonia and even TB.
The HIV-AIDs core team in the province is going from town to town and cities to conduct testing and counseling in different colleges and universities, as well as call centers.
Hitosis is urging the communities to help HIV-AIDs patients so they will not be stigmatized and discriminated against.
Meanwhile, she urged everybody to join the walk for a cause in celebration of World AIDS Day at the Pantawan Rizal Boulevard here at 4 p.m. on December 7.
