Xefaq Service

Xefaq service is strictly confidential. There, clients' questions are answered and one is helped to assess one's particular situation and risk possibilities. Whether or not a client have been at risk, s/he will become aware of the lifestyle to be followed in order not to put oneself and others at risk. If a client were at risk Xefaq encourages him/her to have a blood tested during a dialogue around the possible result.

It might not be easy for a client to admit involvement in a risky encounter. This may be compounded by the unease one may experience while talking about sex, homosexuality, extramarital relations and the sharing of needles and syringes for injecting drugs. When people have these fears and concerns and they continue to carry the burden on their own, they will remain in the dark and they might feel as if they were at a dead end. Xefaq counsellors dispose of their time to listen to such persons, to support and to empower them to reach a favorable decision. Xefaq helps clients prepare themselves for the blood test, for the result as well as to pursue a meaningful lifestyle. It takes a lot of courage to pick up the phone and to ask for an appointment. After making the first step, which is perhaps the most difficult one, clients will be accompanied throughout.

Procedure for referring to 'Xefaq Service'

Phone calls at Caritas requesting for Xefaq Service (21 23 39 33) are confidential: A Counsellor responds to the persons who need information about HIV/AIDS and those who would like to know if they are infected.
The conversation is carried out on the phone. Face to face counselling is also offered. Most of the time one session is sufficient. When the person needs to proceed to have a blood test, the Caritas Xefaq Counsellor makes the contact with the GU Boffa Clinic (21 22 44 91 ext.115) for the client. The blood test result, which is strictly confidential, reaches the Caritas Xefaq Counsellor who transmits it to the client at a subsequent session. Confidentiality is safeguarded throughout.

Counselling gives information, clarifies doubts, enables clients to see the benefits of testing and empowers clients to make a conscious, responsible choice of a lifestyle.

Confidentiality is the order of the day.

STIPC (Sexually Transmitted Infections Prevention Committee)

A Caritas Xefaq Counsellor who coordinates the Xefaq Service, sits on STIPC, a Government Public Health committee made up of members who are closely in touch with situations where people are prone to the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS being one of them. The various members endeavor to promote a policy conducive to the prevention of such infections.
Notification of positive HIV cases is not yet in force in Malta. When notification becomes a practice, a true picture of the HIV situation in Malta will become possible while confidentiality will continue to prevail.

General Information

• "In the last 20 years HIV has infected 58 million people, more than 21 million killed by HIV, 5% of deaths around the world caused by HIV"
• "Throughout the world 15,000 persons become newly infected, including nearly 2,000 children below the age of 15"
  June 2001 The Tablet

HIV Acute to Chronic

HIV, an infection which when acquired lowers the immune system, opens the door for multiple infections, which eventually develop into AIDS.

HIV is not curable, however, nowadays it can be treated. This being the case it may take long for an individual who is on the right medication to develop AIDS. AIDS is fatal.

The picture of HIV infection has changed over the years. The virus is still contracted in the well-known ways, namely through infected blood, through the use of infected needles and syringes and through sexual intercourse with an infected person. An HIV positive mother passes the infection to her newborn baby.

The response to medication and the transmission of HIV depends substantially on the viral load. With the correct use of medication, it can be said that the infection has changed its status, namely from acute it has become chronic. This is so because the medication administered to an HIV positive person, can be administered for years, with the result that the possibility of AIDS developing may be pushed further and further away. It is a fact that in some HIV positive individuals who have been on medication for long periods of time, the virus is no longer detected in their blood. It needs to be remembered that at present, with our current knowledge about HIV/AIDS, we are still obliged to consider that these individuals can still pass the infection to others in the usual ways.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2003
“Don’t Brand me … Love me”

Caritas Malta has worked together with local artist Ruth Bianco, who designed an installation at City Gate, Valletta.

3 large PVC banners, balloons and postcard dissemination

This installation combines innocence and defiance in a semiotic play of images, text and signs. Whilst the child images cock a snook at the world, the formal “No Entry” sign which we recognise as barring passage and deterring entrance is reinvented to signify “No Branding”. DON’T BRAND ME, LOVE ME is designed as a public installation and temporal event on the City Gate entrance marking World Aids Day, December 1st. This artwork is conceptualised as a form of resistance towards the social barriers, discriminations and stigmas we create. The act of disseminating balloons and postcards is conceived as an active statement synchronising increased human interactivity that paradoxically triggers fresh boundaries by way of wide-spreading illnesses and contagious infections. Five persons die of AIDS every minute of every day round the world. Yet, we continue to fuel fear, risk and pain through ignorance, exclusion and branding.

 

World AIDS Day 2002 Message
If it feels good, do it? Warning: HIV is not prevented by good feelings but by responsible behavior.

A recent survey by Caritas Malta confirmed that certain behaviour and lifestyles are endangering the lives of Maltese young people. Alcohol consumption, drug abuse and promiscuity are all a concoction that may lead to further harm such as increasing the risk of becoming infected with HIV due to lack of responsible behavior.

6,000 youth contract AIDS every day, says UN Report. (4th July 2002)
6,000 people in the age group of 15 to 24 years get infected with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, according to a United Nations (UN) report. The report concluded that a vast majority of the world's young people had no idea how AIDS is transmitted or how to protect themselves from the disease. Yet, adolescence is the time when a majority of people become sexually active. The report stresses that young people are at the centre of the AIDS epidemic. They are the hardest hit by the disease and form the key to overcoming it. Despite this, anti-AIDS strategies generally disregard young people. Overall, surveys of 60 countries indicate that more than 50 per cent of the people aged 15 to 24 harbour serious misconceptions as to how AIDS is transmitted. It is a strong indicator that young people do not have access to information about the disease.

The Caritas Malta Position .
Caritas Malta strongly believes that the best strategy to reduce the spread of HIV among young people is education and the promotion of responsible behavior. This year Caritas Malta has targeted teenagers by printing 40,000 postcards with a message reading:
If it feels good, do it? Warning: HIV is not prevented by good feelings but by responsible behavior.

The cards have been distributed in post-secondary schools, University, Junior College, MCAST, ITS and other further education organisations. Distribution of these postcards will take place in Valletta and Paceville with the collaboration of SCORA the Standing Committee on Reproductive Health – a sub committee of the Malta Medical Students Association. The postcards contain information on how to go about making a decision, on how to use the HIV / AIDS Counselling service called Xefaq offered by Caritas Malta, and details regarding a full screen by the G.U Clinic.

The postcards have been sponsored by the Sexually Transmitted Infections Prevention Committee.

Other means of promotion include bus posters, cinema slides, TV and radio adverts.