Alarming

The figures are alarming, especially in a country that has prided itself in low-prevalence rates on HIV, the virus that can lead to the fatal AIDS. A recent report about 486 new HIV cases is particularly distressing because it represents a 43-percent increase over the same period last year. In fact, according to the Department of Health, 934 HIV cases were reported last January-February alone.

Of the new cases, 96 percent were male, mostly 20-29 years old—indicating that HIV is afflicting our young people in their most productive years. With the expensive antiretroviral (ARV) drugs needed to keep HIV at bay severely stretching limited resources, this is one economic disaster we can ill afford.

The DOH says that in most of the new cases, the virus was contracted through unprotected sex, with men having sex with other men (MSM) as the predominant type of transmission. Coincidentally, one of the more salient findings of the 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute is that today’s young people tend to be more adventurous as to practice MSM and engage more frequently in casual sex. The YAFS report also noted the increasing use of alcohol among young people, which, because it loosens inhibitions and impairs judgment, could raise the risk of having unprotected sex. Similarly, modern technology, particularly social media, has brought forth new and more casual ways of sexual interaction among the young, again including unprotected sex and MSM.

While raging hormones may account for some young people’s reckless sexual behavior, another factor may simply be ignorance, or the lack of information on safe sex that they could have gotten through age-appropriate sex education. Unfortunately, the landmark Reproductive Health Law that mandates sex education in schools remains in restraint at the Supreme Court. And to imagine that all parents, no matter how well-intentioned, would effectively dispense to their children useful advice and information on sex, is about as fanciful and naive as the Catholic bishops’ exhortation that only abstinence, and not condoms, could prevent HIV.

A more realistic approach is to beef up the government’s information campaign on HIV, not just by flooding massage parlors, nightclubs and KTV bars with flyers, but also through more creative and youth-friendly ways. Short radio and TV ads, Twitter messages, a Facebook page on HIV administered by people living with HIV/AIDS, information posters on the LRT-MRT trains, or flash mobs in malls, public markets and health centers, are a good start. Through these, the DOH can also promote discreet, accessible and efficient AIDS testing, making sure that it is included in the primary health services offered in public hospitals to help remove the stigma attached to it.

Congress can help by passing amendments to the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998 (Republic Act No. 8504). Under House Bill No. 3243, teenagers from age 15 can avail themselves of HIV testing and counseling options even without the written consent of their parents or legal guardian. Required under the current AIDS Law, the written consent would only strengthen the stigma attached to HIV services by making it a moral, instead of a health, issue.

Hopefully, the alarming spike in HIV cases would jolt the Supreme Court justices into releasing the RH Law so that public schools can develop the sex education modules that our youth need to help them learn how to protect themselves from risky sex.

The labor department can do more to check how effective its HIV modules are, as part of its predeparture orientation seminars. And just how prepared are foreign service officers in our consulates in handling HIV cases among Filipino workers abroad? Also, can the labor, foreign affairs and social welfare departments seek an active partnership with nongovernment organizations (which have been doing a commendable job of turning persons with HIV into AIDS educators and counselors), to check how effective, grounded and realistic are their HIV and counseling modules?

Can private firms do their part by providing their employees with regular briefings and in-house counseling on HIV/AIDS?

Lastly, can the government take a proactive stance in studying the lucrative ARV patents that pharmaceutical firms continue to hold close to their chest? Lawmakers can take a leaf from the 1997 Brazilian patent law that requires foreign products, including drugs, to be manufactured locally within three years after receiving a patent. As an ad by the Brazilian government proclaims: “This is not a declaration of war against the drugs industry; it is simply a fight for life.”