Editorial: Educate to fight HIV/Aids

Sunday, April 3, 2011

THE increase in the number of Filipinos infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) should force the country to review its approach to preventing and treating the spread of the disease.

According to the National HIV and Aids Registry March 31 report of the Department of Health (DOH), 159 new “sero-positive” individuals were confirmed to have acquired HIV in February. This is a 22-percent increase of the 130 cases reported in the same period last year.

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In the April 1 report of the Sun.Star News Exchange (Sunnex), the number of people living with HIV in the country is now 6,326.

Since passive national surveillance of the disease began in 1984, 324 have died of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids), with one person passing away last February.  

Educated and forearmed

There is a need to educate people about HIV and Aids, urges Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group LPG/MA.

According to a news release from his office, Ty is prodding Congress to examine if the 13-year-old policies and measures of the 1998 Aids Prevention and Control Law are
sufficient for dealing with the present outbreak of HIV/Aids.

Ty also pushes to increase government funding of “preventive HIV/Aids education.”

The DOH has warned about HIV infections “increasing at an alarming rate” among the
populace, particularly among drug users, Filipino adolescents and overseas Filipino workers.

According to the National HIV and Aids Registry March 31 report, 44 of the 159 new HIV cases diagnosed in February involved persons aged 15 to 24 years.

One hundred forty-four of the 159 new cases are males; 15 cases, females.

Nineteen of the new cases are overseas workers, 15 males and four females.

Choice between life and death

The World Health Organization has noted that while the spread of HIV has slowed down in many countries, the epidemic grows at an “alarming rate” in seven countries:

Armenia, Ban-gladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the Philippines.

Health advocates push for education to eradicate ignorance and misconceptions that lead to high-risk behaviors.

Contrary to the belief that only sex workers are in danger of getting HIV/Aids, the other high-risk populations are men having sex with men (MSMs), drug dependents, overseas workers and sexually active but ignorant adolescents.

Among sex workers, there are the so-called direct female sex workers), who operate from brothels, and indirect female sex workers, such as bar girls, beer joint girls, masseuses and karaoke guest relations officers. Different approaches are needed to educate, test and assist these workers.

Among MSMs, health workers have to design approaches to identify and approach the long- from the short-hair types. Long-hair MSMs are generally regarded as openly providing sex services. Since they are readily identified, they are easier to approach and assist. Short-hair MSMs are more difficult to categorize as they outwardly seem like other men or may be bisexual.

Drug use, specifically injecting drug use (IDU), fuels the spread of HIV/Aids. The sharing of needles for IDU increases the risk, already high, of drug dependents.

With Filipinos continuing to seek overseas work, it must be emphasized that unprotected sexual encounters with female sex workers, unpaid partners and multiple partners increase the risk of HIV/Aids, and the possibility that “seamen serve as the bridge of HIV to the general population” in the country.

To avert a full-blown HIV/Aids crisis, all stakeholders must support prevention and intervention programs, particularly condom promotion, behavioral change, HIV/Aids testing and surveillance and treatment.