Not all 33 HIV-infected locals seek medical treatment

With his years of experience in dealing with patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, Dr. Jorge Villacian has probably seen the worse cases. In fact, nothing surprises him anymore.

Barely four months in his job at the Commonwealth Health Center, Dr. Villacian is still getting to know the HIV/AIDS patients on the island. In fact, he has yet to meet all the 33 people who already tested positive for HIV because not all of them has come to the hospital for treatment.

Concerned about the growing number of HIV/AIDS cases on the island, Dr. Villacian has one piece of advice for everybody: People who suspect that they are infected with HIV should not wait a day longer. Have yourself tested. And if you find out that you’re HIV positive, seek medical treatment because it can make a lot of difference in terms of life expectancy.

In Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami where he used to work, people were just dying of HIV/AIDS in the early 90s as there were not so much drugs available for patients suffering from the dreaded disease. Several years after, everything else has changed when new drugs became available, giving people infected with the virus some hope in prolonging their life.

“We should all take measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

While he understands the reason why people refuse to seek medical treatment even if they know that they are already carrying the virus, Dr. Villacian is hoping that they would take the necessary measures in preventing the spread of the disease.

“There is always the element of denial or fear of knowing that they have the disease. A lot of this is brought about by fear of rejection by society and everybody,” he said.

The biggest challenge for him, Dr. Villacian said, is convincing the people to come to the hospital and get tested. Those who are found HIV positive are given counseling to help them understand about the disease.

There are at least 33 HIV/AIDS patients in the CNMI and there are 300 more estimated to have been infected with the virus.

“We don’t just ask them to take medicine. We spend so much time talking to them, giving them counseling,” he said.

The decision of Moses Saburo, the first HIV infected person to come out in public and share his story has tremendously helped the Department of Public Health in its information campaign about the dangers of the disease.

“We really appreciate his openness and we encourage everyone to do the same so that people would learn from their experience,” said Dr. Villacian.

Dr. Villacian warned that failure to immediately get medical help will lessen the chances of prolonging one’s life. In the early 90s, having HIV was very much like a death sentence. But the race to discover the cure has led many scientists to develop new drugs that now allows people with HIV to live a ‘normal’ life.

“People who are diagnosed with HIV in the very late stage can develop infections when their resistance is very low so it makes a lot of difference when they immediately see a doctor,” he said.

Failure of his patients to take the medication religiously frustrates Dr. Villacian the most because it affects the whole treatment for the disease.

“It is hard to imagine how not taking one pill can drastically change the treatment. Once you become resistant to one class of drug, the options become narrow and narrow. And once you start switching to different drugs, then the success rate becomes less and less. That’s what frustrates me most,” he said. A patient can take a minimum of 10 pills a day.