More young males coming out for HIV test; data show widening spread

DAVAO CITY—More young males are coming out to seek testing for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as government statistics have begun to show a widening spread of the virus among males who have been having homosexual contact for the last four years.

Priscilla M. Senoc, health education and promotion officer of the Davao City Integrated Gender Development, said “peer educators” in the communities were able to persuade an average of 500 young males to undergo tests or to seek counseling for sex-related diseases and problems.

She said the trend in high incidence of HIV became pronounced in 2008 among males having sex with other males and that since then, the “trysts” became prevalent as the news about them spread.

“These are not the homosexual males we are talking about here. We have interviewed males who said they were straight but engaged in sex with other males for fun, for the thrill of it and rituals among gangs,” Senoc said.

Connie Actub, head of the nongovernmental group Alliance Against AIDS in Mindanao (Alagad Mindanao), said that this year alone, there were 93 new HIV cases in Davao City, pushing the total number of persons with HIV here to 262.  The monitoring of this virus that causes the dreaded Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) began in 1993.

Records of cases were those compiled from the Southern Philippines Medical Center HIV and AIDS Core Team-Davao City, Reproductive Health and Wellness Center-Davao City Health Office, and the Alagad Mindanao.

Of the HIV cases here that were monitored since 1993, the biggest group was mostly young males, at 245; only 17 were female.

Since 1993 29 have died, including the woman who agreed to speak with reporters in 2005 on condition that she would not be identified.

The number of people with HIV in Davao City makes up 61.21 percent of all cases in Mindanao. The next big group, with 62 cases are from the rest of the areas comprising the Davao region (three Davao provinces, Compostela Valley and Samal Island).

Region 12, comprising the Cotabato provinces, is a close third with 58 cases. Region 10, or the north-central Mindanao areas, including Cagayan de Oro City, has 24 cases. Sixteen were monitored in the Caraga Region, composed of the two Agusan and the two Surigao provinces, including Dinagat Island.

Only three each were monitored in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi), and Region 9, or the Zamboanga Peninsula in Western Mindanao.

“We are trying to educate all people who believe or suspect they are carrying the disease and to come out in the open and take advantage of the health services of government and the private institutions,” Senoc said.

“We need to educate them about the disease, to live responsibly and at the same time, for people in their communities not to promote the stigma and discrimination against people with HIV,” she added. –Manuel T. Cayon / Reporter, Businessmirror