AIDS Commissioners set example for nation

Last week News Five’s Kendra Griffith presented a series of reports on both the necessity for and the ease with which HIV testing can be obtained in Belize. Today one group of Belizeans took her advice.

Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Today four members of the National AIDS Commission went under the needle at the Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre at the Cleopatra White Health Clinic.

Abel Vargas, N.A.C. Commissioner
?I am here as an advocate to the testing and I am here to advocate and to show people by example that testing is no big deal. We need to know our status and we have to know our status in order to get help is we need some.?

Kendra Griffith
?Have you ever been tested before??

Abel Vargas
?Oh yes, several times. Actually I am a regular blood donor as well.?

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Chair, National AIDS Commission
?We feel that as leaders of the AIDS Commission and in the national response to HIV/AIDS in Belize, we need to be seen to be involved and active. And what better way we thought than some of us come and actually as commissioners do our test.?

For Opposition representative at N.A.C., Kathy Esquivel, the process was painless.

Kathy Esquivel, Opposition Rep., N.A.C.
?Of course nobody likes to take a blood test, but it?s just a minor discomfort. The counselling session was very professional. Some of the questions are quite searching and intimate, but the situation is such that you feel quite comfortable giving your response.?

Nurse Bradley
?Here your result is negative, so I hope …?

Kathy Esquivel
?I?m glad to hear that.?

Esquivel and Commission Chair Dolores Balderamos-Garcia both agree that if you think you?re not at risk and don?t need to get tested, think again.

Kendra Griffith
?Ambassador what would you say to the persons out there who are thinking, but you don?t need to get tested, you?ve been married for quite a number of years, you have children, why do you need any HIV test??

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
?Girl, everybody who is sexually active and you cannot swear even though you may think you are happily married, you can never swear totally and we need to know our status. I don?t want to make an assumption and so I believe that I need to know my status.?

Kathy Esquivel
?Even people that don?t think they might be at risk, you never know because although your behaviour might be as such that you are not putting yourself at risk, maybe your partner?s behaviour does, so nobody can be sure. So even if you think you?re safe, it doesn?t hurt.?

According to Balderamos-Garcia, today?s testing is not a one-time event and actually forms part of efforts countrywide.

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
?For those who were not able to make it today, we?re hoping to get them to come in. We also know that the Ministry of Health is going to launch another ?Know your Status? campaign?, so that?s it?s going to be more bombarded in the media. We want to reach out to the districts now in strengthening the district committees so that the community response can kick-in. In addition to the good things that are happening with the Ministry of Health, the Women?s Department for example, the Ministry of Education and our NGO partners.?

But all those community efforts come down to one person: you. Get tested … right away.

Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

The Cleopatra White VCT Centre is open from eight to five, Monday to Friday. If you would like to be tested during lunch or after work, you are asked to call the centre at 223-0541 and make an appointment. Other testing sites in Belize City include the Port Loyola Health Centre on Faber’s Road, the B.F.L.A. Clinic on Mercy Lane and the Belize Medical Associates Southside Clinic on Regent Street. In the districts, testing is conducted at the regional and town hospitals.