Councilor Erdolfo Balajadia, chairman of the City Council committee on health,
said it should be declared as a policy of the City Government to continue
promoting awareness about the causes, mode of transmission, consequences and
means of prevention of the disease.
He added that the state should extend to persons suspected or known as HIV-AIDS
carriers with full protection of their human rights and civil liberties by
providing basic health and social services to them.
He said the underlying reasons that aggravate the rise in cases such as
poverty, gender inequality, prostitution, marginalization, drug abuse, and lack
of proper information should also have to be addressed.
He proposed that in educational institutions, the Department of Education
(DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) integrate into the
school's curriculum AIDS education subjects as well as courses on sexually
transmitted diseases.
For those in the health sector, the HIV-AIDS education campaign should form
part of the delivery of health services.
In the proposed ordinance, Balajadia said the training of health workers should
include educating them on HIV-related ethical issues such as confidentiality,
informed consent, and their duty to provide proper treatment.
To educate the communities, the City Government, in coordination with the
Department of Health (DOH), will lead the information campaign, with the mayor
and the barangay leaders coordinating the campaign.
For purposes of blood and organ donation, the measure states that a second
laboratory testing may be demanded as a matter of right by the blood, tissue or
organ recipient or his relatives prior to transfusion or transplant. Should
organ or blood donations from infected individuals are accepted, this should be
for research purposes only and should be subject to strict sanitary disposal
treatment.
The DOH, in coordination with concerned professional organizations and hospital
associations, will issue guidelines on precautions against HIV transmission
during surgical, dental, embalming, tattooing or similar procedures. It will
likewise issue guidelines on the handling and disposition of cadavers, body
fluids and waste of persons known or believed to be AIDS carriers.
