911: An HIV Confidential Counseling and Testing Event

Event organizers and volunteers posing for a souvenir photo
after a whole day of work -- tired but happy!

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES -- On September 11, 2011 the Love Yourself (VINN Advocacy) group, a not-for-profit organization focused on HIV prevention among the youth and LGBT-MSM (Men who have Sex with Men), in association with Quezon City Health Department (QCHD), held their 2nd quarter advocacy project, “911: An HIV Confidential Counseling and Testing Event” at 35 West Avenue, Quezon City. The event was undertaken together with volunteers from Quezon City Health Department (QCHD),  Take The Test, AIDS Society of the Philippines and representatives from SaMACKA. The event was able to serve a total of 89 clients from 10am to 6pm on that day. 

The program promoted voluntary testing option to the 89 clients, and all of them signed the informed consent form to take the HIV Confidential Counseling and Testing. Of the 89 clients that were counseled and tested, 81 were male, 4  were female, and 4 were transgender. The 89 individuals ranged from 18 to 48 years old. 

As per DOH protocol, during the post-test counseling and release of the rapid HIV test result, all the clients were given instructions:

The blood samples of the clients that turned out to be reactive will be sent to National Reference Laboratory-STD AIDS Cooperative Central Laboratory / San Lazaro Hospital to undergo an HIV confirmatory test. The Quezon City Health Department (QCHD) will contact the client after two weeks and the results will be given. If confirmed positive, the client will undergo further laboratory tests, most importantly the CD4 level to determine the need for administration of anti-retroviral drugs.