Official: Keep AIDS patients info secret

 HEALTH workers in East New Britain, especially those dealing with HIV/AIDS cases, have been urged to keep information on patients confidential.

Sinivit local level government president Boniface Gerep told 68 cocoa farmers who had completed training on how to conduct HIV/AIDS awareness that confidentiality was vital to avoid stigma and discrimination.

He said some health workers breached their work ethics by giving out information on people living with HIV/AIDS to others in the communities.

“People living with HIV/AIDS are afraid to come out and seek VCT (voluntary counselling and testing) services and live with worry and anxiety and eventually die,” he said. 

Gerep said health workers must go out more into the communities to conduct awareness on HIV/AIDS. “With the knowledge that you have received from the training, you must go out and pass on what you have learnt to people in the community,” he said.

Farmer Alban Dawadawareta said the training was useful because there were health issues they had not been aware of.

Dawadawareta told the 68 farmers that the responsibility of informing others of the killer disease was now on them. 

“We are now frontliners in the fight against HIV/AIDS and we must go out and drive this awareness at the ward level,” he said. 

“Our jobs have just begun,” Dawadawareta said.

He urged those who completed the training to fully utilise their training and help others.”