DOH: HIV/AIDS to increase by 14,000 this year

MANILA, Philippines – HIV/AIDS cases will rise by 14,000 this year, according to projections by the Department of Health (DOH).

Gerard Belimac, program manager for the department’s National AIDS/Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention and Control Program, said 60 percent of that increase will be in Metro Manila, Cebu City and Davao City.

The demographic profile of city-dwellers meant they were particularly vulnerable to the virus.

“These places are populated by young people aged 15 to 39. They are educated and they have easy access to the Internet,” Belimac said. “Through social networking, they easily meet people that they do not know.”

Ironically, these “young and educated people” were often educated about HIV/AIDS and knew how the virus was transmitted.

But, Belimac said, they still engaged in risky practices. “There is a disconnect between knowledge and behavior,” he said.

In Metro Manila the virus is primarily transmitted between men having unprotected sex with other men, while in Cebu City, the virus is primarily transmitted between users of injection drugs that share needles.

In Davao City, on the other hand, the virus spreads through both means.

Belimac added it is easier to reach out to commercial sex workers and to people in the community than the “professional and working class.”

“It takes some courage to really act on it,” he said, referring to the education campaign among professionals.

To reverse the trend, the DOH is scaling up its intervention campaign by focusing on the sectors most at risk to the AIDS virus.

In 2011, the DOH had registered a total of 2,349 HIV cases – 94 of which have progressed into AIDS.

Of those cases, a total of 1,842 cases were transmitted by men having unprotected sex with men and 110 involved injection drug use. This prompted the DOH to re-focus the campaign to these sectors and the commercial sex workers.

“HIV is stable among commercial sex workers because they are the regular clients of DOH’s programs,” Belimac said. “We are now trying to expand to other population (that are highly at risk).”

DOH records showed that last year’s 2,349 cases are part of the 8,364 HIV cases, 341 deaths and 960 AIDS cases. –SHEILA CRISOSTOMO (The Philippine Star)