CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government will be allotting P5 million to subsidize the cost of treatment of indigent persons in the city found positive with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
The Cebu City Council approved the allocation on Wednesday, December 4, in response to an information from the Cebu City Health Office said that they no longer have enough funds to sustain the cost of medicine and the laboratory fees of the HIV-positive indigent patients here.
Cebu City leads Central Visayas with the most number of HIV cases with at least 3,898 cases, latest data from the City Health Office showed.
The P5 million will be included in the P10.4 billion annual budget of the city for 2020 that was proposed by Mayor Edgardo Labella and is set to be taken up by the city council on December 18, 2019.
City Health Officer Daisy Villa said that each patient needs P30,000 for their laboratory fees and retroviral drugs to keep the HIV patients healthy, preventing the virus to develop into Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
She said that Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth), the government-run insurance company, is already helping provide for the medication of its members following the enactment of the Universal Health Law.
However, indigent patients will still need the help of the city to fund their treatment.
“In 2019, we only have a budget of P50,000 for the HIV Council because we still had grants from non-government organizations. We need to increase the budget for the treatment because we will lose the grants by 2020,” said Villa.
The council, on the other hand, promised to create policies and programs to address the rise of HIV cases in the city.
“That is why we wanted to know the reason why HIV is on the rise so the council can create policies and programs to address the problem,” said Councilor David Tumulak.
Councilor Raymond Garcia also urged peoples’ organizations (PO) to help HIV patients in their communities get accredited by the city so that the city government can also provide financial aid for their programs.
The Cebu Rainbow LGBT community, a PO, has earlier urged the city government to provide more programs for HIV sufferers in the city, including the setting up of HIV-AIDS centers that can cater to their needs.
They hope Cebu City will allocate resources for the HIV-positive constituents and bring awareness about HIV and break the stigma sufferers face from the public. /elb