AIDS carriers should not be punished –

MANILA, Philippines — Despite an upsurge in HIV-AIDS cases in the country, doctors who have joined the battle against the dreaded sexually transmitted disease are not recommending passage of a law that would penalize carriers for infecting other people.

Speaking before media members at the Health Forum on Tuesday, Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana of the Philippine General Hospital Department of Infectious Disease said the Philippines is not yet ready for such legislation now being enforced in the United States and other countries facing serious HIV-AIDS threat.

Salvana said a patient’s failure to disclose HIV-AIDS condition to a sex partner is a felony in certain countries, adding that this law is thought to play an important role in preventing the spread of the disease.

However, he stressed that such a law could contradict efforts in getting persons infected with the HIV virus to come out and undergo treatment that are readily available.

He said the tendency of victims is to clam up.

Salvana disclosed that victims of the feared disease are becoming younger even as statistics have shown a sharp rise in number of infected persons.

“From 2001 to 2010, the number went down by 19 percent but it rose by 800 percent in the Philippines,” he revealed.

In November last year, 284 persons were diagnosed to be suffering from the HIV virus.

Salvana said that the disease does not spare anybody, even medical workers themselves.

The medical specialist recounted that two days before Christmas, a 20-year-old patient died from the disease. The victim, he said, was a medical student from a well-to-do family.

“Ang trend ay lalong bumabata ang mga biktima. Bulk of cases is happening right now, lawyers, doctors, members of the media, there has not been any occupation or segment of the society not touched by the disease,” Salvana told reporters.

Salvana was one of the speakers invited by the Philippine College of Physicians to discuss with the media the HIV-AIDS situation in the country.

He said available statistics have indicated increasing sexual promiscuity among the Filipino youth.

“The number of young Filipinos having premarital sex has been increasing. The same with those having premarital sex with multiple partners,” the medical specialist stated. –Ben R. Rosario, Manila Bulletin