Free HIV testing in Cebu City on May 25, Sunday

CEBU, Philippines - Residents of Cebu City and from neighboring areas can avail of free HIV testing on May 25, 2014, Sunday, at the Fuente Osmeña Rotunda.

The testing, which will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be in line with the The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, an international campaign for HIV and AIDS awareness initiated by the Global Network of People living with HIV, a coalition of some 1200 community organizations in 115 countries.

The campaign takes place every third Sunday of May.

Based records, there are 1,079 residents in Cebu City ages 15 to 79 years old that have tested positive of HIV/AIDS from 1989 until March 2014.

Of this number, 176 were recorded to have full blown AIDS in 2010. The year after, three people were added to the list and five were added in 2012. By last year, 2013, five more were found to have full blown AIDS. No one with full blown AIDS was added this year, so far.

“Sa mga tawo nga nagduda nga naa silay HIV,  mahimong moduol sa ilang grupo aron sila matabangan. Dili kini angay ikaulaw tungod kay nagpasabot lang kini nga responsable ang usa ka tawo sa iyang kahimsog,” said Cebu Plus Association, Inc. Executive Director Jerson See.

Cebu PLUS is a local support group for people with HIV/AIDS.

Last week, mayors of Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City signed an agreement with the Department of Health-7 to come up with a network that provides care and support to People Living with HIV (PLHIVs).

The memorandum of understanding was entered into during the launch of the first ever Central Visayas Regional AIDS Summit held in Cebu City.

DOH-7 also transferred to social hygiene clinics in the three cities a performance-based grant from the department. A social hygiene clinic from Cebu City got P1 million; P500,000 for another clinic in Lapu-Lapu; and another P500,000 for a clinic in Mandaue City.

DOH-7 Director Jaime Bernadas has said that in the last five yeasr, the rate of infection has accelerated among people who inject drugs and men having sex with other men.

Aside from DOH-7 and the local government units and their respective social welfare departments, Cebu PLUS Association, Eversley Child Sanitarium, Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth, Society of the Divine Word-University of San Carlos, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development-7 also signed the MOU.

These offices pledged to work together to deliver critical, accessible, and quality medical care community support, and home care services to people affected by HIV. (FREEMAN)