Seafarers urged to avoid commercial sex, be tested, as OFW-linked HIV cases rise

MANILA, Philippines – From modern-day hero to heel: that’s effectively how a legislator describes reckless seafarers who access commercial sex abroad and pass on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to their family back home.

As the official registry of HIV-AIDS cases shows a spike in cases involving migrant workers, the seafarers, according to a party-list congressman, should protect their partners against the dreaded virus that causes full-blown AIDS by having themselves tested against the virus every time they come home to the Philippines.

Rep. Arnel Ty of the LPG Marketers’ Association (LPG-MA), author of House Bill 5312 that seeks a P400-million fund to jumpstart a new HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Plan, said seafarers are vulnerable to the virus because they can easily access commercial sex abroad and can pass it on when they return home.

Citing data from the health department’s HIV/AIDS Registry, Ty noted that 20 percent of the country’s total 9,669 HIV cases are Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Of the 1,921 HIV-positive OFWs recorded since the registry began in 1984, an estimated 97 percent contracted the virus through sexual contact.

“We have reason to believe many of these HIV-positive OFWs may be sailors,” said Ty.

Manpower consultant Manny Geslani said all land-based and sea-based OFWs are not mandated to have themselves tested for HIV unless their blood tests show they are positive for a sexually transmitted disease.

“What happens is they undergo blood test. If the test showed that they are positive for STD, that’s the only time that they are required to test themselves for HIV/AIDS,” Geslani said in a telephone interview.

But Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the test for HIV is mandatory for seafarers.

As of May this year a total of 133 HIV positives were OFWs representing 10 percent of new HIV cases. Eighty-nine percent of these cases involve men and 11 percent were women who work abroad.

Majority of HIV-positive OFWs or about 77 percent, are aged 35 and below.

“As a precaution, we would encourage these sexually active sailors to voluntarily undergo HIV-testing every time they come home, for the sake of their partners here. Also, the earlier they get diagnosed, the sooner they can seek treatment,” said Ty.

Filipino seafarers number more than 350,000, manning about one-third of the world’s fleet.

They sent home a record $1.532 billion from January to April this year, up $195 million or 14.58 percent from the $1.337 billion they remitted in the same four-month period in 2011. –Cher S. Jimenez, InterAksyon.com