HIV cases increasing in country

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

LOCAL health authorities recently reported an increase of human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) cases in the country despite a worldwide decreasing trend.

Dr. Rowena Galpo, OIC-City Health Officer, said the Philippines is one of the eight countries where HIV cases continue to rise.

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Dr. Celia Flor Brillantes, head of the Baguio Social Hygiene Clinic, also stressed cases in the city rose during the past years from two recorded cases in the past decade to six cases in 2010 and 2011.

This brings to 50 the number of people who have contracted HIV in the city since the government started monitoring in 1992 when the Summer Capital registered its first case.

Sixteen of these HIV-positive individuals either developed acquired immune deficiency syndrome or Aids died due to complications.

Brillantes said their strategies of screening and issuing certifications to commercial sex workers have been producing good results, as this sector has not yielded any positive cases in the past years.

What concerns doctors now is the growing number of men having sex with men (MSMs), identified as the most vulnerable sector for the past four years.

From overseas Filipino workers in the early 2000, the cases of HIV recorded were mostly MSMs and injecting drug users, she said.

However, most of the new cases, with 17 years old as one of the youngest recorded case, were acquired through sexual contact.

The youth, she said, engaged in casual and unprotected sex, a risky behavior often resulting to deadly circumstances such as acquiring the fatal disease.

She added easy access to sexual partners brought about by social networking sites, chatrooms and mobile phone text messaging has been prevalent among the youth.

Department of Health (DOH) Philippines Aids registry in September 2011 alone showed there were 253 new HIV cases, the highest number of new HIV infections ever reported in the country.

Most or 95 percent of the 2011 cases were males. The 20 to 29 years old age group had the most number of cases and of the 253 new HIV cases recorded for September, 135 or about 53 percent was from the National Capital Region.

Of the new 253 HIV cases, five were reported Aids cases and all were males. Ages ranged from 18 to 50 years old. Eighty percent acquired the infection through sexual contact, while the remaining 20 percent from needle sharing among injecting drug users.

Network to Stop Aids in the Philippines (NSAP), the Philippines’ biggest funder of the Philippines’ HIV and Aids programs, recently reported Global Fund to Fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, decided to cancel its next round of funding.

“The immediate implication of this unprecedented cancellation of funding is that half of existing HIV prevention services and 60 percent of life-saving treatment, care and support programs for Filipinos living with HIV and Aids would have no funding in the coming years. Just when thousands of Filipinos are at greater risk of HIV infection, the Philippines is expected to cut down its HIV and Aids interventions,” the group said.

NSAP also lamented with the Global Fund cut the country is courting an HIV crisis.

“While the rest of the stakeholders are already mobilizing to address the epidemic, the political leadership of the country response is dragging its feet and pretending that there’s no problem,” the group added.

The group is now urging the Aquino government to set up a Presidential Task Force on HIV and Aids to address the gaps in the response, initiate reforms in the Philippine National Aids Council, and mobilize local governments to perform their mandate in delivering crucial HIV and Aids services.

“We also call on the President to set up an emergency fund to immediately scale up prevention, treatment, and care and support services and forestall an HIV crisis,” the group said.