Many STD patients come from broken families – CBCP

MANILA, Philippines – Many among those suffering from sexually transmitted diseases come from broken families, an official from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday.

In an interview over Radio Veritas, CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Health Care (ECHC) executive secretary Fr. Dan Vicente Cancino said the “less than ideal” setup in families may be a factor for the continued increase in the number of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) cases in the country.

“Many young people these days have a distorted concept of sexuality due to the lack of what we call family values formation,” Cancino said. “Because of this, they were deprived of a deep parent-child relationship. The familial ties have been damaged. It is no wonder that many of our patients come from broken families, dysfunctional families.”

The Department of Health (DOH) recently announced that it has recorded this year the highest number of new HIV/AIDS cases since 1984. The DOH had registered as of February this year 646 new cases, a 33-percent increase from the same period last year.

Cancino said since parent-child relationships appear to influence the increase in HIV-AIDS incidence in a predominantly Catholic country, he urged the faithful to go “back to the basics” to combat the further spread of this global pandemic.

“Let’s all go back to the basics: family values and prayer. Too bad, many of our people have neglected their prayer lives. They are only reminded to pray when they are suffering from illness. That’s the time most of them run to the Lord,” he said. –Evelyn Macairan (The Philippine Star)