This is to maintain an atmosphere of trust with staff members, students, families, and the community, PSS Associate Commissioner for Curriculum and Instruction Jackie Quitugua said.
Talking to teachers and counselors during a Healthy Sexuality Workshop on sexuality education, HIV prevention education and prevention on unintended pregnancy, Quitugua said the policy on confidentiality should be strictly enforced to protect also the PSS from legal action.
“Every employee has a duty to treat as highly confidential any knowledge or speculation concerning the HIV status of a student or other staff member,” she said, adding that violation of medical privacy is cause for disciplinary action, criminal prosecution and personal liability in a civil suit.
Quitugua said a student or the parent or guardian may report HIV status to anyone at the PSS but it is not required. “HIV antibody testing is not required for any purpose.”
She said that all health records, notes and other documents that reference a person’s HIV status will be kept confidential.
Access to those confidential records is limited to those persons who have written permission from the parent or guardian and to emergency medical personnel, she said.
The information on HIV status will not be added to a student’s permanent education or health record without written consent, she added.
Public Health’s HIV/STD treatment and resource program manager, John Dax Moreno, said they have no reports of students infected by HIV disease in CNMI.
As per HIV transmission information, Moreno said, it is extremely difficult to be infected with HIV in the school setting.
“HIV is transmitted by getting infected blood, semen or vaginal secretions into the bloodstream of an uninfected person via unprotected sexual intercourse, injecting drug use or needle stick involving HIV-infected blood, maternal transmission to the unborn, and receiving a transfusion or organ transplant that is infected with HIV,” he said.
Moreno said that for infection to occur there must be an infected body fluid and an access route for the infectious agent to get into an uninfected person.
He encouraged workshop participants in applying the universal precautionary measures in the school setting to prevent contact with blood and body fluids.
The universal precautions focus more on personal hygiene which include attending the injured person, cleaning and disinfecting environmental surfaces, and clean up for attending a person.
Moreno also talked about the infection control practices.
He said that body fluids of all persons should be considered to contain potentially infectious agents. Body fluids include blood, semen, drainage from scrapes and cuts, feces, urine, vomitus, respiratory secretion.
“No distinction will be made between body fluids from individuals with a known disease or infection and body fluids from asymptomatic or undiagnosed individuals,” he said.
Quitugua said all PSS employees are required to consistently follow infection control and universal precaution guidelines in all settings even in playgrounds and school buses.
“A school staff member is expected to alert a person responsible for health condition or behavior presents a reasonable risk of transmitting any infection,” she said.
