More HIV/AIDS cases linked to Internet boom

DOH warns RP may face epidemic soon

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) has said Internet social networking sites have provided a venue for young people to find partners in risky sex that usually leads to cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in the country.

It further warned that if the country failed to address the growing HIV-AIDS problem, the Philippines could face an epidemic in due time.

At Monday’s Kapihan sa Manila forum at the Manila Hotel, Dr. Eric Tayag of the DOH National Epidemiology Center (NEC) revealed that 126 new cases of AIDS were listed in the national AIDS registry in December 2009, “the highest” number of cases reported within a month “in the past 25 years” since the first case was reported in 1984.

The new cases brought the total number of HIV-AIDS patients to 835 in 2009, the highest accumulation of cases within a single year in the Philippines since 1984, according to DOH.

So far, 4,424 cases of HIV/AIDS have been recorded in the country, since 1984.

He revealed that the mode of transmission and the profile of infected persons have also changed in the past three years. Most of the cases shifted from heterosexual intercourse to “men who have sex with men,” with most of the cases involving young male adults between the ages of 25 and 29 years old.

The DOH-NEC director pointed out that men who admitted having sex with men were not necessarily homosexual, saying, “62 percent still believe they are heterosexual. HIV/AIDS is not about being gay but about men having sex with men, which is a lifestyle choice.”

Tayag said Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Davao City have been the focus of the DOH in terms of HIV/AIDS prevention.

Tayag believed that the mushrooming of social networking sites in the past three years and the rise in HIV-AIDS cases in the country during that period were linked and not merely coincidental.

Philippine National AIDS Council secretariat Ferchito Avelino explained that it had become easier for young people to find sex partners through the Internet.

“There has been no study but it has been pinpointed as one of the major causes of the rise of HIV/AIDS cases,” he stressed.

He, however, added that other factors have been making the situation worse. These are, according to Avelino, the absence of an enabling environment or a social support system for people with HIV-AIDS or those at risk to the virus; and the lack of access to information about sex as adults refuse to talk about sex with their children, who grow up doing their own research.

“The ingredients for an (AIDS) epidemic are all present. Oras na lang ang hinihintay bago ito maging problema (We’re just counting the hours for this problem to erupt),” Avelino warned.

The ingredients of an AIDS epidemic, he explained, have been the high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, early sex debut, low rate of condom use, and insufficient knowledge about the disease.

Avelino stressed, “By knowledge, we mean that a person has to be able to identify the three modes of transmission and dispel the misconceptions. We know about HIV/AIDS but we have many wrong notions about it. These misconceptions are the root of stigma and discrimination against certain groups in the society.”

“It (HIV/AIDS) is not related to who you are but rather on what you do… It is the behavior that puts a person at risk,” he added and identified having multiple partners and unprotected sex as well as sharing of syringes as “risky” activities.

Tayag said that HIV/AIDS could be prevented by abstinence, delay in sex orientation, faithfulness or monogamy, safe sex, avoiding the use of a single needle in injections, and prenatal screening. –Jeannette Andrade, Philippine Daily Inquirer