Previous Story
CNMI help sought in battle vs. HIV
|
Posted on Jan 25 1999
Philippine Consul Julia Heidemann is seeking the CNMI’s cooperation in getting Filipino workers infected with HIV treated, the same collaboration given to American nationals.
Heidemann said the CNMI should also bear the cost of providing treatment to HIV-infected Filipino, once it has been determined that the virus was acquired here.
“I think, they have the responsibility to provide treatment if it can be proven that the Filipino patient got the virus here. If a Filipino has no HIV record when he arrived here, that means he got it here,” she said.
The consul said since the U.S. is considered the most medically and technology advanced nation in the world, Filipino HIV patients will have the chance of getting the best possible treatment available.
Two HIV-positive Filipino workers voluntarily left the CNMI last year for treatment in the Philippines.
Both have been referred to the San Lazaro Hospital, a Manila-based public sanitarium providing treatment to HIV and AIDS patients.
Besides being health-risk, the two were asked to leave because the local government has no means to adequately treat them.
But local health authorities said they did not abandon their responsibility when an HIV-infected alien is sent back home since they keep in touch with concerned authorities from the worker’s point of origin.
