Disowning reality

Friday, December 2, 2011

THE prevalence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the country is low, the official registry of cases shows.

But health officials put the real numbers at exponentially more than that because the vast majority of those known to engage in risky behavior—like needle sharing and having multiple sex partners—do not have themselves tested for HIV.

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Then there’s the vulnerable group—the out-of-school youth, wives of overseas Filipino workers and clients of sex workers—who don’t think they’re at risk and also don’t get tested.

The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center has been able to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of providing access to all who seek HIV treatment. But this may be because people who don’t know they have HIV don’t seek treatment.

The trends are worrying.

The Department of Health says more youth are getting infected because of early engagement in risky behavior and ignorance about the dangers of drugs and the causes of HIV.

Among 15-24-year-olds in the country, reported HIV infections nearly tripled from 41 cases in 2007 to 110 in 2008. In 2009, this group accounted for 29 percent of all new cases.

In Cebu City, the bulk (25 percent) of cases from 1989 to early 2010 were aged 19-29.

It’s possible the number of new cases is not actually rising but that existing cases are just coming to light as more people get themselves tested. But the cases surfacing only underscore how big the iceberg could be underneath.

HIV/AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) education is supposed to be done in schools, but Philippine National AIDS Council officer-in-charge Dr. Susan Gregorio said the Commission on Higher Education has not integrated the manual in the school curriculum, while the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority is “still developing a module.”

The response of local government units (LGU) has also been weak. Not all have created Local AIDS Councils (LAC) to coordinate efforts to combat HIV in their areas.

Central Visayas has 12 cities and 120 towns, but the Department of the Interior and Local Government 7 says there are only 46 LACs in the region: 28 in Cebu province (including in Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities), 15 in Bohol, and three in Negros Oriental.

Gregorio said some local officials don’t want to put up LACs.

“They say, ‘We have no GROs (guest relations officers or prostitutes), HIV cases here.’ They don’t acknowledge the problem for fear of affecting local tourism,” she said.

The Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998 mandates an information campaign against AIDS in schools, workplaces and communities, and aimed at Filipinos working abroad, tourists and transients.

Reaching the unenlightened will help stop HIV in its tracks.