UP Diliman offers free HIV treatments for its community. Thanks (yet again), UP

In yet another act of public servitude, the University of the Philippines is now offering free HIV treatments for its constituents. Cue the applause.

UP Diliman has free Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) available for delivery in our outside Metro Manila. The service is being offered through the Sustained Health Initiatives of the Philippines, Inc. (SHIP).

For Metro Manila residents who want to apply for the ART, you can call the SHIP clinic’s hotline number at 023-4913479 from 2 to 7 p.m. If you live outside  the metro, you can e-mail shipclinicshaw@gmail.com.

 Make sure to have the following details ready for your application:

• Name of recipient
• Contact number of recipient
• Choice of pickup at LBC branch (specify which) or at home (indicate home address)
• Unique Identifier Code or UIC (XX-YY-00-mmddyyyy)

Where, XX is first 2 letters of mothers name, YY is first 2 letters of fathers name, 00 is birth order, and mmddyyyy is the birth date.

• ART regimen
• missed pills in the last 30 days
• remaining pill count

Even though we’re dealing with a pandemic right now, there are health concerns that continue to happen which we can’t overlook—HIV treatment being one of them. Persons living with HIV (PLHIV) are vulnerable to diseases, coronavirus included, due to being immunocompromised. Right now while our economy is struggling, accessible materials like this can quite literally be life-saving.

This isn’t the first time UP has provided accessible health materials to the public. Scientists from the university developed a more affordable COVID-19 test kit a few weeks ago. The past week, UP also published a COVID-19 resource site, which includes an online symptom checker and live COVID-19 statistics. 

Now that’s a worthy way to spend our tax money. Ineffective government officials, take note.

Art by Zaila Mae Urmeneta