Davao City to remember AIDS victims

Alliance Against AIDS in Mindanao (ALAGAD) chairperson Herminigilda Escalante during Monday’s Kapehan sa Davao at SM City Davao cited the importance of the celebration to also give hope to those people who are living with the said disease.

The activity also served as an avenue to promote the necessity of HIV testing and to commemorate those people who succumbed to death because of HIV/AIDS.

This year’s theme “Keeping the light, honoring our rights, and standing with pride”. 

“Just keep the fire burning to really push the prevention program and push forward for the support for those who are still living and honoring also the rights of those who succumbed to the disease,” Escalante said.

In the same press conference, Dr. Jordana Remitere, head of the city’s Reproductive Health and Wellness Center (RHWC) confirmed that the city has a total of 3,810 confirmed cases of HIV/AIDS recorded from 1993 to January 2022.

“Ito ay total cases na confirmed meaning to say some of these may have died some of them are actually undergoing treatment. Lahat lahat na ito. Ang atensyon man natin ay na-focus sa COVID but our services never stop. Patuloy pa rin ang ating clinic at facilities and testing,” Remitere said.

She said men having sex with men (MSM) are still on top of the list of the modes of transmission, however, she said there are also men having sex both with males and females and heterosexuals.

“Mataas pa rin yung sa MSM, but we also have yung men having sex both with males and females, pero meron ding heterosexual, may female to female. Hindi lang purely MSM, but they maybe the drivers of the epidemic medyo mas marami yung sa kanila pero nagsisimula rin na meron mga heterosexual,” Remitere said.

According her, among the three modes of transmission to include blood transmission, mother-to-child transmission, and unprotected penetrated sex, sex is still the highest cause of HIV-AIDS transmission.

The opening of community-based testing centers and more people accessing the HIV/AIDS services are the reasons attributed for the rising number of HIV-AIDS cases, Remitere said.

“Dahil siguro sa maraming testing centers ngayon. As you can see meron ng nag-open na community-based centers. Medyo tumataas talaga yung kaso natin. Actually tumataas siya in number or talagang ang mga behaviors katulad ng risk sexual behaviors that is why tumataas siya and then we always have new young population coming in na nagiging exploratory so tuloy tuloy pa rin yung cycle natin,” she said.

Nidgie Tindoc, Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) HIV-AIDS case manager, meanwhile said they are now catering almost 3,000 PLHIV who are now actively taking antiretrovirals.

“Accessible na ang testing karon. Sa karon daghan na gyud kaayo sa SPMC ang among na-cater. Ubay ubay na ang namahulay or nangamatay tungod sa HIV. We are actively accommodating every client na ma-diagnose,” she said.