THE number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive overseas Filipino workers is expected to top the 4,000-mark this year, and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) slammed the Senate on Saturday for the delay in the passage of a new program to suppress the disease.
“While the Senate dilly-dallies, HIV is ravaging the lives of a growing number of Filipino workers here and abroad every day,” said TUCP president and former senator Ernesto Herrera, whose labor center is a member of the multi-sectoral Philippine National AIDS Council.
Herrera made the statement as the number of OFWs known to have been found HIV-positive reached 3,509, with the addition of 221 new cases from January to April this year.
“The OFWs who are getting infected have a median age of 33, and are at the prime of their lives in terms of potential economic productivity,” said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.
Herrera said OFWs now comprise some 14 percent of the aggregate 24,936 cases in the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry as of April 2015.
Some 82 percent of all HIV-positive OFWs, or 2,892 cases, were male, with the median age of 33. The 617 HIV-positive female OFWs had a median age of 34, according to the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry.
HIV causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, which does not have any known cure. But the World Health Organization (WHO) says “huge reductions have been seen in rates of death and suffering when use is made of a potent antiretroviral regimen, particularly in early stages.”
The proposed new AIDS Prevention and Control Law, or House Bill 5178, seeks to launch highly effective new strategies to fight AIDS, which is being spread in the country primarily via unprotected sexual contact, predominantly male-to-male sex, and secondarily through needle-sharing among injecting drug users.
The bill seeks to renew the country’s outmoded, 17-year-old AIDS Prevention and Control Law, or Republic Act 8504.
The House passed the bill, authored by Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, on third and final reading in December 2014, and promptly transmitted it to the Senate.
But the counterpart Senate Bill 186, introduced by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, is still pending action at the committee level up to now.
“We have to provide greater support to and stronger protection for HIV-positive individuals, particularly against employment and workplace discrimination,” Herrera said.
“As the disease infects more Filipinos, we also expect a greater number of HIV-positive workers to face employment discrimination, thus the need for improved safeguards,” he added.
The proposed new AIDS Prevention and Control Law sets tougher penalties for entities and individuals who discriminate against HIV-positive people as well as those who violate their rights to confidentiality.
It likewise seeks to improve the living conditions of HIV-positive people through greater access to treatment, care and support.
Herrera, meanwhile, urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to find new ways to strongly raise awareness of HIV, both among outbound and returning OFWs.
Under the 1998 AIDS Prevention and Control Law, the DOLE, through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, is supposed “to ensure that all OFWs shall undergo or attend a seminar on the cause, prevention and consequences of HIV/AIDS before certification for overseas employment.”
A total of 2,409 new HIV cases were discovered countrywide from January to April this year, up 32 percent from 1,825 in the same four-month period in 2014.
In the whole of 2014, a total of 6,011 cases were detected nationwide, up 25 percent compared to 4,814 in 2013. –Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today
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