Living with HIV in the Philippines

The official blog of The Project Red Ribbon Care Management Foundation, Inc. (TRR).

  • TRR LOVE FUND

    TRR Love Fund is the arm of the foundation which provides medical assistance to the financially challenged PLHIV.

  • Care assistance for HIV Test

    The Care Assistant Program involves assistance to HIV testing and HIV and AIDS Treatment hubs in the Philippines. Our volunteers schedule the client to the clinic or hub, assist with the procedure in the clinic or hub and conduct peer counseling

  • HOTLINE ASSISTANCE

    With the TRR Hotline Numbers, our volunteers answer concerns and inquiries about HIV and AIDS, do counselling, refers clients to nearest HIV Testing facility, HIV and AIDS Treatment Hub and government and NGO organizations for support

  • PEER COUNSELING

    The foundation volunteers conduct one-on-one counseling either on the phone or in person. They also conduct group counseling

  • SUPPORT GROUP TALK

    The support group talk (SGT) is a program that involves giving HIV lectures by guest speakers, discuss topics about HIV, care, treatment and support, discussion issues related to HIV

  • OUTREACH PROGRAM

    The foundation's outreach program is geared towards providing support to our fellow PLHIV's in the HIV and AIDS Treatment Hubs. Volunteers hand out of donations of medicines and special gifts to PLHIV, give inspirational talks by invited guests to a group of PLHIV, bonding over snacks or meal, visit the sick who are confined in the hospital

  • Referral System

    As part of treatment, the foundation's referral program involves our volunteers referring clients to specialized doctors who are HIV friendly. The foundation has it's own list of specialty doctors of low cost for the indigent PLHIV.

  • Online Support Group

    The foundation has a private Online Support Group in facebook. This group of advocates, supporters, counselors, health Workers and PLHIV

  • Home Health

    Aside from client counselling, the foundation volunteers also do family counselling and home visitation for awareness and continuance of care.

  • Health Fitness

    The foundation believes in holistic approach to treatment and care, thus inclusion of these programs: yoga, dance, swimming, jogging and running, boot camp workouts

  • EVENTS

    As part of awareness and education program, the foundation organizes its own national events to coincide with the international AIDS events: World AIDS Day and International AIDS Candlelight Memorial

Showing posts with label HIV 101. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HIV 101. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

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Pozziepinoy, , , , , , , ,

When To Take the HIV Test?

I have received a lot of emails and text messages telling me symptoms that they see and feel that maybe HIV related. A lot are asking and comparing symptoms from what they are reading from the internet to what they are experiencing. 

 How Would I Know if I have HIV?

 Please understand that HIV has non specific symptoms. This simply means that HIV CAN NOT be diagnosed based on what you are feeling or experiencing. HIV can ONLY be diagnosed by the HIV Test alone. Period. 

 I have talked to a lot of people for 2 years now who both have symptoms and without symptoms and both groups have HIV. This explains my point that one can NOT be diagnosed with HIV based on symptoms alone. The HIV test is the only tool wherein one can be diagnosed with HIV and nothing else. The HIv test is very specific to testing the presence of HIv antibodies in your bodies that are produced by our body in reaction to HIV itself.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

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Pozziepinoy, , , , , , , , ,

What does my CD4 count mean?

(Source: 100 Questions and Answers About HIV and AIDS, 2nd Ed., by Joel Gallant, M.D., MPH)

 Your blood contains red blood cells (RBC's), white blood celles (WBC's) and platelets. Lymphocytes are a type of WBC, and the CD4 cell is a type of lymphocyte, the one most affected by HIV. The CD4 count measures the health of your immune system. It should be checked regularly (usually every 3 to 6 months) if you're not on therapy because it measures the amount of damage done by HIV and iit is the most important test for deciding whether you need to start ART or prophylaxis (prevention) for opportunistic infections. The CD4 count almost always increases with effective ART, but how much it will increase is hard to predict.

 Once you're on ART, the viral load becomes more important than the CD4 count as a measure of your response. If you're viral load is undetectable - the goal of therapy - it's unlikely that you would make any changes based on the CD4 count. An ideal response to ART is to have an undetectable viral load and a CD$ that's above 500. When you reach that goal, its not necessary to measure the CD4 count more than once a year.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

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Pozziepinoy, , , , , , ,

Is HIV a Disability?


To begin with, what is a disability?   

A Google web search defines it the following way:

Noun
1.    A physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities.
2.    A disadvantage or handicap, esp. one imposed or recognized by the law.

 If we accept the definition above, then disability is an umbrella term.  It covers impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions: impairments are problems in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.  Thus a disability is thus not just a health problem.  It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives.  An estimated 10% of the world’s population has a disability.  So, is HIV a disability?  There are people living with HIV who would say absolutely not. There are people living with HIV that would say yes, HIV is a disability.  The answer is it depends. 
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