We can defeat HIV together!

On May 14, 2019, the day after the midterm elections, we had the Blessing and Inauguration of the VSMMC KAAMBAG CLINIC.

We have a lot to be thankful for, so let us count our blessings!

1. We have blessed and inaugurated our KAAMBAG CLINIC at Annex B 3rd floor, a center for HIV counselling and testing of patients of VSMMC, with the presence of our Medical Center Chief Dr Gerardo M Aquino Jr, our Chief of Clinics Dr Antonio Roque Paradela and our Chief Training Officer Dr Celia Mabalatan. Thank you!  Thank you also to Dr Helen Amorin and the Vsmmc Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for allowing us to occupy the room for our KAAMBAG CLINIC.

2. We have reorganized our HIV/AIDS Core Team to include representatives from each department and area in VSMMC to help provide a multi-disciplinary approach to managing PLHIV and improving healthcare access, with Dr Mishelle Vonnabie Bala as our HACT Chair and Dr Chamberlain Balong Agtuca as our Program Manager. We thank Dr Abel Alera for holding the fort and keeping the HACT together all these years as HACT Chair.

3. We celebrate VSMMC HACT finally have access to the Philhealth OHAT package which will allow us to provide free laboratory tests and medicines to our PLHIV patients.  Thank you Dr Aquino, the EXECOM members with special mention to mam Maureen Bien!



4.  We are able to train VSMMC employees and volunteers to become DOH-certified HIV counsellors to serve our areas. Thank you to the Region 7 DOH Trainers Francis Irvin Baring, Kirstine Jane Blanco, JZ Lim, Dr Janice Navarro, Lord Lawrence Latonio, and Quini Rubio with the support of DOH RO7 HIV Program Head Dr Van Phillip Baton.

5. We were given permission by the Training Office and Chief of Clinics to conduct a hospital-wide HIV forum for healthcare workers from May 14 to May 17 in celebration of the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial.  Kudos to our nurses Don Llamera and Kim Yuson and to our case managers Josh Ivan, Crixty EL, Gen Branzuela, Mary Grace Calumba, Jc Genrose, Jennifer Andrino, Ray Mond, Rjay Capioso Escarillo Jr.!

6. We have members of the EXECOM, supporters and VSMMC Employees signing our commitment tarpaulin "Akong gidawat ang hagit aron mapataas ang kahibalo sa HIV ug pagpakunhod sa dungog ug diskriminasyon batok sa mga tawo ng adunay HIV"

7. We have agencies such as the AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION, PBSP and ASP providing us with salaries for our HACT staff, our case managers and to fund activities and much-needed resources for the VSMMC HIV treatment hub.

8.  We are able to co-organize the HEALTH IS LIFE Run with other organizations to raise funds for activities of the HIV program on May 18, 2019 at 3am at SM Cebu. Special mention Jerson Tolentino See and Dr Ilya Abellanosa who have always been very supportive of our patients and programs.

9.  We will be able to keep open our VSMMC HIV Treatment Hub until 10pm to facilitate distribution of ARVs to PLHIVs beyond office hours.



10.  We have a strong Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV Program in VSMMC to cater to PLHIVs in Cebu, with one of the highest number of patients enrolled in the Philippines. Special thanks to the VSMMC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the dynamic OBGYN Residents, nurses, nursing and OR staff! Special mention to Hilary Overton and Glory Reborn for the mothers' support group, for doing what the doctors can't do.




#TEACHCebu: Targetting Enhanced Awareness and Control of HIV in Cebu

We are in Cebu - the heart of the Philippine HIV Epidemic and we are in a position of opportunity to make an impact on #gettingtozero and reducing stigma and discrimination against PLHIV.  Everybody has a role in this fight.  Each person should be included.

Strategies to #GettoZero
1. Diagnose - #GetTested
2. Link to Care - #ReduceHIVStigma
3. Viral Suppression - #ARVforever
4. Treatment to Prevention - "U=U"
UNDETECTABLE = UNTRANSMISSIBLE

Time to move on and get back to work!

Happy Mother's Day!

I woke up last Sunday and saw "Happy Mother's Day" greetings flood my facebook newsfeed.  I suddenly felt a flood of regret knowing that this role has passed me by.  I will never experience for myself the joy of birth that I see everyday in the faces of the new mothers we deliver.  It's a good thing I am an obstetrician. I can participate in the miracle of bringing new life into the world.

When my good friend Joseph Monsalud greeted me "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY" I said I felt hurt, because I am not a mother.  So he explained,

Being a mother doesn't mean you had physically delivered a baby, but encompasses raising them, provided care for them, feeding them, loving them when no one else provided it to them.

Come to think of it, I felt so much like a stage mother to my residents when they proudly represented our institution VSMMC during the CVCHRD Research and Innovation Conference at CIT-University last May 9-10, 2019. 

The best part was when our senior resident, Dr Mhea Lasola, won 1st place in the podium presentation professional category!  I was so proud that whether she liked it or not, I marched up the stage with her to accept the prize!

I just had to post on our facebook page what I felt at that moment for these trainees whom I felt where my adult children:

"Your achievements become our achievements too!"

That Sunday, we were scheduled to have a surgical mission and I handled the 3rd case. I was truly not expecting the bouquet of flowers that were waiting for me at the OR lounge!

It was a delightful surprise, melting all the regret I felt when I woke up that morning.

There was a secret note too, one that would melt a heart of stone. 

I am parking this here so I can read it over and over when work seems too tough, when at times I feel so inadequate I want to quit, when I feel that I can't do this anymore, and use my failing health as an excuse.

Online communities and social networks toward achieving common goals

Online communities are bound together by a common interest or topic. Jenny Preece describes online communities as the following: People, who interact socially as they strive to satisfy their own needs or perform special roles, such as leading or moderating. Each member of an online community has his or her social network, and when they come together online, can make things happen. With high penetration of social media in the Philippines, there have been a lot of online communities and social networks.

Many things have been taught about the millenial generation (born between 1980-2000) nowadays in postgraduate conferences, in meetings of medical societies and medical education conventions, because they seem so different from the previous generation in that they were born into the internet technology and have different resources at their fingertips compared with older generations. They are motivated by different incentives, and it has been said that millenials will work on causes that they find meaningful. A career for millennials is a journey of self-discovery. What I have learned from the millenials that I teach is that when you involve them them in projects that can potentially change society, they will work wonders with the resources that they have and get the job done.

Last year, we organized a caravan of HIV forums for medical students to improve HIV awareness and to reduce stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV (PLHIVs). To rally all the members of the group, we used #TEACHCebu to unify all comments, photos and videos. More energetic than the faculty coordinators we met up with, the students who understood the "why" paved the way for online meetings and discussions on the "who, what, where and when". More than thinking of ourselves, we were working for a cause together.

Social media changes the way people interact with each other. We could comment and share our "Eureka" moments with each other 24/7 in the middle of the night as the thoughts occur. Jayeel Cornelio of the Ateneo de Manila University says "Young people are looking for avenues where they feel they are effective". Renzel Yu of Cebu Doctors' University Accentuating Lives Through Service and Advocacy (ALSA) shares that intense discussion occurs online (mostly thru facebook messenger) before an activity is conducted, to minimize miscommunication and to ensure that each member has his or her own assigned task. This makes for successful projects.

Whether it is to promote a noble cause or to campaign for a certain candidate for the upcoming elections to make their platforms known, social media is a powerful tool that can be used to gather people together, to keep them connected, and to make things happen.