Alarming is the report by the Department of Health that 18 new cases of HIV are diagnosed every day, up from nine a day reported in 2012. What does this show but that HIV/AIDS education is not making a dent on the public consciousness in these parts?
Since it was first reported in 1981, HIV/AIDS has been the subject of worldwide media attention as governments scrambled to control the spread of the virus. For the most part, they have been successful. The 2013 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS reported that the estimated number of new infections in 2012 in Asia and the Pacific showed a 26-percent decline from 2001, with the World Health Organization’s overall treatment covering 51 percent of the cases, an uptick of 46 percent since 2009. Furthermore, deaths from the virus in the region are down 18 percent since 2005. “As a result, for many of the 4.9 million people living with HIV, the disease is no longer a death sentence, but a manageable chronic condition,” UNAIDS said.
That sounds good, except that the Philippines does not share in the improvement. The UNAIDS report identifies the Philippines as not only one of 12 countries accounting for more than 90 percent of people living with HIV, but also one of those with 90 percent of new infections.
Everywhere one looks, the numbers are alarming. The DOH reported 536 new cases in January, a 20-percent increase from the same period last year. And Health Secretary Janette Garin has warned of a new, more aggressive form of the virus.
In General Santos City, three late-stage patients died last week as the total number of cases reached 194. But it is feared that the number is soft. “For every patient who is positive of HIV, we’re looking out for 20 more that could have been infected unintentionally. So by now, our actual HIV cases could already be around 2,000,” Dr. Mely Lastimoso, the coordinator of the City Health Office, told the Philippines News Agency.
GenSan is not an isolated case. There are 225 new HIV cases reported in the National Capital Region, 45 of them overseas Filipino workers. The vast majority of the new cases are male, 95 percent of whom were infected through unprotected sex.
Perhaps because HIV/AIDS has been in the news for more than three decades, Filipinos may feel that the disease is under control. That is a dangerous assumption.
The WHO says that the most at-risk populations globally are those who have no access to proper prevention, testing and treatment services. It is thus vital to reach and treat those identified by the WHO as most at-risk—including men having sex with men, sex workers, transgender individuals, prison inmates and people who inject drugs. The DOH has “particular activities and advocacies” for them, according to spokesperson Lyndon Lee Suy.
UNAIDS has observed that the Philippines is one of the countries where people living with HIV/AIDS feel ashamed of their status to the point of considering suicide. There is thus a clear need for the DOH, other concerned agencies and nongovernment organizations to reach out to those most at-risk. Beyond the common sense of using condoms as protection during sex, the WHO is pushing new antiretroviral medicines such as preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for men having sex with men. The DOH is studying if PrEP will be effective in the Philippine setting, Suy has said.
With the scare triggered by such high-profile diseases as SARS and Ebola, Filipinos may have been effectively ignoring HIV and the ways by which it is transmitted (sexual contact, use of contaminated needles, blood transfusion, among others). More than ever, the necessity of beefing up the education campaign on HIV/AIDS and the perils of unprotected sex is paramount. The way the numbers tell it, certain sectors continue to be ignorant of HIV, or simply do not know that AIDS
has no cure.
Back in 2013, we said: “The Aquino administration should take its cue from the ominous numbers. This is a priority issue—nay, a life-and-death issue.” The call has not changed. It is of utmost urgency to sustain the efforts of both the public and private sectors in fighting this modern-day scourge, mainly through intensive education and active support for those afflicted.