A 36-year-old mother of two children in southern Cebu is the latest confirmed victim who tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) this April.
The mother contracted the virus from her HIV-positive husband who is employed as a seaman.
Her two children tested negative for HIV, which causes the dreaded AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer, head of the AIDS Free Philippines group, said the wife initially didn’t know about her husband’s condition until shortly after she developed some HIV symptoms.
When her husband admitted his condition to her, the mother underwent an HIV test which confirmed her fears.
Bullecer said the mother didn’t accept her condition at first but later recovered emotionally.
He said their group recorded nine HIV cases in Cebu City alone from January to April 20 this year.
It also recorded nine HIV cases in Central Visayas from March 1 to April 20 in Central Visayas and six more in Cebu.
Two of the nine cases in Cebu City are already full blown AIDS victims, the youngest at 23 years old and the oldest at 46 years old.
Eight of these cases involve male victims of which seven contracted it from homosexual intercourse.
Another male victim admitted to contracting the virus from a sex worker, Bullecer told Cebu Daily News.
“(We have observed) a noticeable spike in the number of cases among our sexually active homosexuals and bisexual men,” Bullecer said.
He said Men Having Sex With Men (MSM) had become a trend for HIV positive cases in Cebu.
Bullecer said the victims contracted the disease through anal sex which is more prone to infection than heterosexual intercourse.
But the Cebu City Health Department said needle-sharing among drug users is the leading cause of HIV virus transmission followed by unprotected sexual intercourse.
Dr. Ilya Tac-an, head of the CCHD’s Social Hygiene Division, said they are now promoting condom use to deter the spread of HIV.
But Bullecer insisted that a values campaign that would encourage the youth to return to Christian morality is the solution to this menace. –Fatrick Tabada, Cebu Daily News
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