Zero AIDS cases recorded in Olongapo in 3 years

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines — City health officers here have stated that this city has not registered a single human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patient in the last three years.

This statement came after The Hospital-Based record of HIV & AIDS Core Team during the observance of World AIDS day on Wednesda, December 1 at the Rizal Triangle Multi-Purpose covered court.

Dr. Arnildo Tamayo said: “This is a manifestation that the city government program against HIV/AIDS is successful.”

The local government has been adamant in its thrust for AIDS awareness in the city, part of their program included Orientation seminars, treatment and counseling of positive Sexual Transmitted Infections (STI), advocacy through radio and television talks shows.

AIDS is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors.

HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk.

This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

AIDS is now a pandemic. In 2007, UNAIDS estimated: 33.2 million people worldwide had AIDS that year; AIDS killed an 2.1 million people in the course of that year, including 330,000 children, and 76% of those deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to UNAIDS 2009 report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected, with some 25 million deaths, and 14 million orphaned children in southern Africa alone since the epidemic began. –JONAS REYES, Manila Bulletin