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The government-owned Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC) Treatment Hub for HIV patients conducts at least 10 positive HIV tests every month on patients.

Dr. Sebar Sala, the ZCMC Treatment Hub officer-in-charge, revealed this on Wednesday. His facility does confirmatory testing on suspected HIV cases.

If a patient has HIV or not, we can tell right away, according to Sala.

Since they had to send the sample for testing to the Sexually Transmitted Diseases – Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (STD-AIDS) Cooperative Center Laboratory in San Lazaro Hospital, he once claimed that “it takes months to get the answer.”

At the ZCMC hub, according to Sala, five to eight suspected HIV patients are currently tested every day.

Sala added without specifying how many people had tested positive for HIV so far: “We have the lowest number of cases in terms of positivity rate since we do not reach one patient per day.

Additionally, he could not say whether the patients being treated at the center are residents of this city or its environs.

Sala has however urged the group that is most at risk to get tested for HIV.

Since HIV can be treated after it has been identified, he stated, “HIV is not a death sentence. It is really vital to get tested as early as possible.”

AIDS can develop from HIV, a virus that targets the body’s immune system.

The ZCMC Treatment Hub offers HIV care, and people who test positive can receive free antiretroviral medication there.

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