More overseas Pinoy workers hit by HIV

ONE out of every four Filipinos infected with HIV is an overseas worker, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) party-list reported Monday. TUCP secretary general and former Sen. Ernesto Herrera revealed that at least 1,501 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are infected with deadly disease, accounting for 26 percent of the 5,729 reported cases in the National AIDS Registry as of end October 2010.

“This is very unfortunate because if we look closely at the median age of HIV positive OFWs, at 36 years old, they are the prime of their lives and productivity,” said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.

Herrera noted that 96 percent of the HIV positive OFWs were infected through sexual contact, which underscores the need for government to aggressively encourage safe sex through the use of male and female condoms.

“OFWs are particularly vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases because they are exposed to foreign cultures that tend to abet high-risk behavior, including casual sex,” he said.

Herrera underscored hat Filipino sailors are exceptionally susceptible, considering that they are spending lengthy periods at sea.

True enough, 75 percent, or 1,127, of the HIV infected OFWs are male.

“Sailors are often deluged by commercial sex workers at their foreign ports of call, and they have the money to pay for the services,” he pointed out.

TUCP’s member federations include the Philippine Seafarers’ Union.

The former senator then urged Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, as well as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, to include AIDS preventive education in the free seminars for departing workers.

Congress, Herrera said, should also mandate the inclusion of AIDS preventive education in all bargaining contracts between management and union. –LLANESCA T. PANTI REPORTER, Manila Times