A deeper look at HIV in the Philippines

Part 1 of 2

We’ve all heard about the startling rate of new HIV infections in the Philippines. We’ve all read about safe sex and how to prevent getting infected. We’ve all been updated on developments in HIV treatment and care. What else don’t we know?

To answer this question, The Gist got in touch with leading HIV facility The SHIP Foundation. Two of its doctors, medical director Dr. Katerina Leyritana and physician Dr. Khaled Alim, who are both very passionate about what they do. And being in the “treatment, care and support” side of the fight against HIV, they have a unique perspective on the issues surrounding the alarming rise of new HIV cases in the country. This is what we found out:

The government is actually taking a lot of steps.

* According to Dr. Leyritana, HIV programs initiated and sponsored by the government include:

* Information dissemination: HIV testing campaigns; monthly update of the HIV and AIDS Registry of the Philippines (HARP)

* Prevention: Free condoms

* Diagnosis: Free HIV and STI (sexually transmitted infections) testing at Social Hygiene Clinics

* Treatment, care and support: Free antiretrovirals and other drugs for opportunistic infections; provision for HIV treatment hubs in hospitals; national HIV treatment guidelines

* Capacity building: Training of counselors, medical technicians and peer educators; continuing education of Social Hygiene Doctors

* Support: Dialogues with stakeholders (community groups); creation of HIV councils within certain LGUs.

But it seems that it’s not enough.

“The high rates of infection that we have seen in the last two reports (May and June) may be explained by a lot of factors, both bad and good. Examples of unfortunate reasons could be the lack of awareness about safe sex practices and HIV among those who are newly-diagnosed, continued practice of risky behaviors such as unprotected sex and drug use (either sharing needles among intravenous drug users or engaging in unsafe sexual practices while on drugs) among others,” Dr. Leyritana explains.

In fact, misconceptions about the transmission routes of HIV are still pretty common, says Dr. Alim. “I still see people who cannot accept that that one time they had intercourse without protection led them into contracting HIV,” he shares.

This means that awareness campaigns are not penetrating everyone. Dr. Alim raises the issue of “dissonance,” for which reason “some people think that HIV is something that happens to other people, but never to themselves.”

There’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Dr. Leyritana reminds us that she isn’t a policy-maker but someone who works directly with patients and is faced with the issues of patients on a daily basis. As such, she does have some ideas on how to improve the current HIV programs and policies. Here are her suggestions:

Start HIV education at a young age. Include sex and HIV in the grade school curriculum. According to the 2013 Integrated HIV Behavioral and Serologic Surveillance report, the median age of first sex with a male is 16 years old. The 2011 IHBSS reports the same age for female sex workers and intravenous drug users. The youth should ideally be well aware of responsible and safe sex practices before this age.

Implement the DOLE’s HIV in the Workplace program (Department Order 102-10) in companies and offices.

Make HIV and STI-related services accessible to all and disseminate information as to where these can be accessed.

Increase HIV awareness campaigns not only on social media, but also on traditional media (TV, radio, print, billboards).

The good news is that more people are getting tested.

“Last May 11-17 was National HIV Testing Week, and the peak of the May-June HIV registry could be reflected by the intensive social media campaign (plus a TV ad by DOH). There was a time three or four years ago that there were less than 10 people getting themselves tested per day at one of the more well-known HIV testing centers. Now they have as much as 70 people who come in for testing in one day,” states Dr. Leyritana.

She also says that “the campaigns of various groups (national/regional/local government, NGOs, community-based organizations, individual advocates) have also increased awareness in a way that more people are having themselves tested, hence more people diagnosed.” While this connection may shed light on the spike in the number of new cases, it isn’t comforting because it simply points to the fact that many of us are still uneducated on the modes of transmission of the virus.

(To be continued next Thursday…) –Ed Biado, Manila Standard Today