To honor the lives that have been taken by HIV
To increase awareness of HIV disease
To improve access to treatment
To promote prevention of transmissible diseases
Getting to ZERO new HIV infections
We celebrated World AIDS Day in Santa Clotilde with education and empowerment in the high school, skits, a parade, and free HIV screening. To our surprise, 2 of 30 patients were positive. In our small town of 6000, HIV in on the rise. Our midwife Blanca called an emergency meeting among some of our staff members to determine how we will proceed. Currently, if a patient is diagnosed with HIV, they need to travel to Iquitos (7 hours away) to get there basic labs, CD4 count, viral load, counseling, and medicines. There follow-up which ideally is monthly then every 6 months is also in Iquitos. Being that we have 40 patients diagnosed within Santa Clotilde and our satellite clinics, our goal is to be able to provide these services here at Centro de Salud Santa Clotilde. We have most of the necessary equipment already, but we need to find funding to buy the reagents and other materials and coordinate with the regional health office in Iquitos to be recognized as an HIV provider.
Thank you to our Midwives Blanca and Carmen and the dozens of other Centro de Salud Staff members who participated in World AIDS Day!
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