OFWs comprise 20% of HIV cases
MANILA, Philippines - Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) comprised 20 percent of the 10,155 cases of HIV/AIDS recorded in the country from 1984 to August this year, based on data from the Department of Health (DOH).
With this, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) yesterday asked its members and their dependents, including OFWs, to have themselves tested for HIV/AIDS if they suspect that they are infected with the virus.
“We are assuring HIV-positive members and dependents, including those working overseas, that we will help them through our Outpatient HIV/AIDS Treatment Package, which provides a substantial allowance for annual reimbursements under our case benefit payment scheme,” PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Eduardo Banzon said.
Banzon made the call after the DOH’s HIV/AIDS Registry reported that 25 of the 272 new cases of HIV/AIDS recorded last August are OFWs.
“We will respect every member’s right to privacy and protect the confidentiality of their claims for treatment expenses incurred. In fact, all their claims are put in specially marked sealed envelopes,” Banzon said.
OFWs who are PhilHealth members may avail themselves of its benefit package for HIV/AIDS even while abroad through their authorized representatives in the country as long as they submit the required supporting papers.
Infected members who are in the Philippines, on the other hand, may seek treatment in any of the 16 hospitals identified by the DOH as special treatment hubs.
These are the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center, Cagayan Valley Medical Center, Jose B. Lingad Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Philippine General Hospital, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Makati Medical Center, The Medical City, and the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital, all in Luzon.
The Zamboanga City Medical Center and the Southern Philippines Medical Center, both in Mindanao, are also affiliated with the DOH.
Patients are given anti-retroviral therapy, a cocktail of drugs that slow down the progression of HIV into AIDS.
“Philhealth’s protection for HIV-positive members is our way of giving more meaning to the right to health of every Filipino and complying with the mandate of the AIDS Prevention and Control Law,” Banzon said.
