The Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) is currently on a hunt for 714 “missing” human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the Western Visayas. According to DOH-Region VI (DOH-6) sexually transmitted infection/HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (STI/HIV/AIDS) coordinator Adrian Hort Ramos, “We have ‘a marching’ from [DOH-6 director, Dr. Marlyn Convocar] to find the missing HIV cases.”

“Gin-compute na sya paagi sa aton Epidemiology Bureau, nag-based na kita sa ila estimate kag kon pila ang trend sang ila estimate for the past five years (The DOH-6 Epidemiology Bureau computes the number based on their estimate and trends based on their estimates over the past five years),” he explained. “Dira naton ginakuha kon pila dapat i-contribute sang isa ka probinsya or highly-urbanized city (It is there where he can figure out how many are in a province or highly-urbanized city).”

He said the regional offices hopes to identify 90 percent of the cases and enroll those patients in a treatment hub.

There are an estimated 4,611 HIV cases that need to be registered across the region.

As of December 2018, the Western Visayas ranked fifth among the highest number of HIV cases nationwide./WDJ