Enemy at the gates

It’s one of those problems that most Filipinos shrug off with a dismissive “it won’t happen to me”—because the prospect seems too distant, the disease too exotic, and its consequences too drastic to even contemplate.

But, alas, the growing rate of HIV-AIDS infection in the country—one of the fastest in the world, as  physician and medical anthropologist Gideon Lasco observed in a commentary in this paper yesterday—should give everyone pause. It is now virtually an enemy at the gates.

READ: HIV goes viral

Consider:

• While new HIV cases have declined globally by 35 percent since 2000, the Philippines has seen a spike, from one new case a day in 2008 to 22 as of September 2015. According to the Philippine HIV/AIDS Registry, there were 24,936 recorded cases of this notoriously underreported disease as of April 2015.
• Per the September 2015 figures released by the Department of Health’s epidemiology bureau, 96 percent of those infected are male, with the median age at 27.
• In the 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality survey, only 17 percent demonstrated correct knowledge about HIV/AIDS, an indication that candid and informative talk about sex remains an exception at home and in school, such that misconceptions flourish about the use of condoms as a protection against the virus.
• Information technology, especially social media, has made casual sex so much easier, thus increasing the risk of exposure among young people who are more likely to be IT natives.
• Though sexual contact remains the most common mode of transmission, the HIV/AIDS registry indicates that MSM (men having sex with men) has become a more common avenue (accounting for at least 87 percent of cases reported), with the young, adventurous and sexually active indulging in risky behavior such as unprotected sex, and having casual, multiple, or frequent change of partners.
• Gaps in law and misguided government policies have inadvertently added to the alarming numbers. There’s the Reproductive Health Law of 2012 whose mandate to provide sex education to young people in school remains hostage to conservative groups and church-related interests.
• A Dangerous Drugs Law that criminalizes the possession of syringes has also stopped the well-intentioned needle-exchange program of some groups, such that HIV/AIDS transmission among injecting drug users who share needles has shot up from less than 1 percent in 2009 to 53 percent in 2010.

With the very real threats posed by this pandemic, it is disappointing that none of the posturing presidential and vice-presidential candidates has highlighted HIV/AIDS in their platform, just as most of them remain tight-lipped on the controversial RH Law, perhaps for fear of offending powerful conservatives.

Surely, with just about any kid with a cellphone, tablet and Wi-Fi connection gaining instant access to sex material via the Internet, it’s time this forbidden subject was demystified so that the curious young can get properly explained and contextualized information.

And why make it difficult for people to get themselves screened for the virus? Republic Act No. 8504 itself mandates the DOH to provide anonymous HIV testing that is adequate, affordable and confidential, with counseling conducted before and after testing. Knowing their HIV status can help the HIV-positive seek treatment early and subsequently benefit from the free antiretroviral therapy that the government must provide by law.

In fact, a careful reading of the Philippine AIDS Law will show that candidates in the May elections have their work cut out for them as far as this issue is concerned—from the government mounting information campaigns through formal and nonformal education, to providing accurate information on the use of prophylactics to prevent transmission.

Along with adequate health and support services for people with HIV, the government must redouble its efforts to chip at discriminatory practices that perpetuate the stigma of this disease, and force people to hide their HIV status.

The Department of Labor and Employment can monitor companies for any firing or transfer of assignment based on actual or suspected HIV status, and the Department of Education can do the same for schools so that students similarly diagnosed are not refused admission or participation in school activities. The right to travel, seek public office, get credit services, hospital treatment and decent burial are among the other rights of HIV-positive people that are enshrined in the Philippine AIDS Law.

Along with some politicians’ promise to stamp out crime, this enemy should be dealt with as well.