Counseling and sex education will accompany condom distribution in schools, an official said Thursday.
Chief of the Population Division of the City Health’s Office Jeff Fuentes told the reporters Thursday that the condoms would be distributed to the students after providing them “proper counseling.”
Fuentes said that condoms are expected to be distributed in school clinics, guidance center, or health centers.
He added that teachers would be trained on how to impart lessons on sex education.
“In that way, the students are alerted that these are the ways of preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infection,” Fuentes explained, adding that they would individually approach the teacher, and that’s the time they will be counseled.
Fuentes mentioned that the distribution program would also have peer counseling and a discussion on sex education with parents and that students receiving the condoms will also be offered to counsel.
If a student undergoing counseling is evaluated by the counselor to be engaging in “risky” sexual behavior, then a voluntary HIV/AIDS test will be offered to them for free, Fuentes pointed out.
Other details of the plan are still being ironed out between the health and education departments.
According to Department of Health’s statistics, Davao City has 1,793 cases of HIV/AIDS recorded from 1984 to 2016 and the recorded deaths during the period already reached 98.
Of the total number of persons with HIV/AIDS in the city, 90 are females and 1,703 are males, the data added.
On the age bracket, three cases were recorded in persons aged 15; 719 cases in ages 15 to 24; 893 in ages 24 to 34; 200 cases in ages 35 to 49; and 32 cases in ages 50 up.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jordana Ramiterre, head of the Reproductive Health and Wellness Center of the CHO, said the Department of Health, in tandem with the Department of Education, will teach the ABC framework: “Abstinence, Being faithful, and Condom use.”
“Our advocacy for youth is abstinence and delaying sexual debut; and if they cannot do that, be faithful, so have only one partner,” Ramiterre told Edge Davao in a separate interview.
She added that “C is for condom use,” which is the last resort in terms of protecting yourself from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
President Rodrigo Duterte listed accessibility to healthcare as a focus in his State of the Nation Address last July and that DOH’s three-point agenda would cover health insurance coverage, service delivery, and protection from infectious diseases.
