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[av_heading heading=’New ordinance creates Iloilo HIV/AIDS council ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Thursday, August 3, 2017
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ILOILO – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) unanimously approved on final reading an ordinance creating the Iloilo Province Multi-Sectoral STI, HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Council.
The council will be headed by the provincial governor, with the SP Committee on Health and Sanitation chairperson as vice chair.
“There is no council or body yet that addresses the concerns of people with sexually transmitted infections (STI), human immunovirus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Iloilo,” said Provincial Board member Paul Bryant Biron, SP health committee chief and author of Ordinance No. 2017-139.
There were 313 HIV-positive cases in Iloilo listed in the HIV and AIDS Registry of the Philippines from January 1984 to February 2017, he revealed.
The council will serve as a central advisory, planning and policy-making body for:
* the prevention and control of STI, HIV and AIDS
* defining the functions of the Council and its Technical Working Group
* providing response through programs, projects and other related initiatives and purposes
* providing technical assistance to local government units and local AIDS councils
* ensuring the creation of local AIDS councils in all municipalities and component city in Iloilo
“To better grasp and deal with the situation locally, there is a need to create a council which shall formulate and supervise an integrated prevention and control program in Iloilo, and allocate more resources for such,” said Biron.
Ordinance No. 2017-139 also mandates the following:
* promotion of prophylactics and information materials for STI/HIV/AIDS prevention in entertainment establishments
* each Municipal Health Office (MHO) shall maintain a roster of entertainers/employers in entertainment establishments
* voluntary regular STI screening for entertainers, transactional sex workers and other similar occupations,
* creation of Social Hygiene Clinic in every MHO
* provision of health and support services for persons with STI, HIV and AIDS
* HIV Testing should be voluntary
* maintaining confidentiality in handling medical information especially of persons with HIV
* any person with HIV is obliged to disclose his/her status and health condition to his/her spouse or sexual partner at the earliest opportune time.
Other members of the Iloilo Province Multi-Sectoral STI, HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Council are the Department of Health, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, faith-based organization, people’s organizations working with groups vulnerable or most at risk for HIV, and the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender) community./PN
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