An impending epidemic

While we were not looking, a future epidemic was fast developing and threatening lives, especially of the adolescents.

A recent report released by the National Epidemioloy Center reveals that HIV, or what is better known as auto-immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS, has increased tenfold in the last four years. In 2006 only 44 Filipinos were reported to have been infected by AIDS. In 2010, the number of infected persons grew to 489. The study adds that most of those infected with the deadly disease are between the age of 15 and 24; with considerably more males getting infected.

This data is alarming, considering that of the estimated 1.2 adolescents in the world as of 2009, 88 per cent live in developing countries like the Philippines and more than 50 per cent of them live in Asia. If the rapid upward trend in the incidence of the disease continues at the rate it has spread in the past four years, the health and well-being of millions of Filipino families are under serious threat.

This brings me to wonder why the detractors of the reproductive health bill continue to block the passage of the law when it can well save lives. In the first place, the bill only aims to give couples an informed choice of whether to use natural or artificial means of contraception; and to make various means of family planning accessible to them on a nationwide basis. Pope Benedict XVI himself has expressed that condoms may be used if only to prevent the spread of HIV infection. The use of condoms does not result in abortion for, clearly, conception is prevented but not terminated by condom use.

The detractors of the bill suggest that the passing into law of the bill will promote promiscuity and sexual activity among the young. But this assertion is not only contrary to empirical data; it is non sequitur. It is like saying that without a reproductive health law, people do not engage in sex unless they are married or want to have children. The reality, as we all know, is quite the contrary which explains the spread of AIDS among the young. Instead of turning our heads the other way, we should ensure that the youths are educated about sexuality and its consequences. The young will always experiment on something they do not clearly understand; following only their natural instincts. They must then be made to understand, early on, the nature of a person fs sexuality and the consequences of irresponsible sex. And this, precisely, is one of the major objectives of the RH bill.

Yet, oppositionits say that sex education will breed a culture of promiscuity. Congressman Edcel Lagman, the bill’s proponent, has correctly explained that sexuality education will neither spawn ”a generation of sex maniacs” nor breed a culture of promiscuity. Reproductive health education which is appropriate to age promotes correct sexual values. It will not only instill consciousness of freedom of choice but also responsible exercise of one fs rights. He added that studies show that countries which have youth sexuality education experience beneficial results such as: an understanding of proper sexual values; the delay of early initiation into sexual relations; abstinence before marriage; avoidance of multiple-sex partners; and the prevention of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

While the bill remains stuck in Congress despite a growing call for its passing into law, it is gratifying to know that all is not lost. The United Nations Children’s Fund, which works for children’s rights, survival and development, has launched a program called “Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity.” Under this program, the UNICEF will invest on adolescent education to ensure that the young, especially the poor, will have the means to lift themselves out of poverty and contribute to the economic growth of their nations. And one of the focal points of the program is giving the youths sound and accurate education on sexual and reproductive health to protect them from teen pregnancies, early marriage, risky social and sexual behaviors, and sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.

UNICEF’s country manager in the Philippines, Vanessa Tobin, says that we cannot be complacent any longer because the rate of HIV cases in the Philippines is increasing at an alarming rate. She says that one-third of new HIV infections are occurring among young people aged 15 to 24. “There is no doubt that HIV + AIDS in the Philippines has an adolescent face,” Tobin adds. Adolescence, she explains, is a critically important age. It is during this second decade in a person fs life, especially among girls in poor families, that one is more likely to experience exploitation, abuse, early pregnancy and childbirth—a leading cause of death for teenage girls. This is reason UNICEF is investing in educating and training the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents.

It is gratifying to know that an international agency has taken an important role in educating the Philippines’ youth to get them out of harm’s way. But this somehow makes the realization that our own Legislature cannot move forward in passing a law to safeguard the reproductive health of its citizens more acutely humiliating.

Is the tenfold increase in AIDS infection among Filipino adolescents over the past four years not alarming enough to rouse the Legislature to action? Our representatives in Congress have listened to arguments and debates from advocates and oppositionists of the bill long enough. It is time to take action. –Rita Linda V. Jimeno, Manila Standard Todayt

Email: ritalindaj@gmail.com Visit: www.jimenolaw.com.ph