DOH: Don’t discriminate people with HIV, AIDS

CEBU, Philippines — Due to the increasing cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases every year, the Department of Health (DOH)-7 advised the public to be open and to eliminate the stigma and discrimination against people with this condition.

This is to empower people to submit themselves to testing, especially those who are sexually active.

DOH-7 Medical Officer Doctor  Van Philip Baton said that the continuous rise in the number of HIV cases is due to the lack of willingness of people to get tested, resulting to the lack of prevention measures.

“It had been increasing.  The reason for that is, of course, daghan ang atoang infection because of the lack of prevention measures. Dili kaayo ma-reached ang atoang target,” Dr. Baton said.

“If you get tested and you found out that you got positive, it is good because you will be enrolled to care. Remember that the testing is free and the medication is also free,” he added.

Baton said that despite the efforts of DOH in coming up with programs to prevent the spread of infection, the major challenge is on how to encourage the people to submit themselves to testing especially those who engage in sexual activities.

He sees the continuous society’s discrimination and the stigma against people with HIV as the reason on why people do not seek help because they are ashamed of what others might say against them.

“Ang uban man gud ilahang mentality kay bahala mamatay ko sa AIDS kaysa makabalo ang mga tao nga naa ko HIV,” Baton said.

Based on data, there are already 45,023 cases recorded since 1984, the year wherein the first case of HIV was documented with 40,717 asymptomatic cases and a total number of 4,306 AIDS cases.

Asymptomatic cases are those infected patients who are disease carrier but experience no symptoms and that the acquired disease could be controlled through treatment and intervention.

There were 2,185 total number of reported AIDS deaths since 1984.

Baton clarified that the goal of their treatment and intervention is not to cure the person from the infection but to prevent it from progressing into AIDS including the control of the spread of the virus, as the patient will undergo counseling and be given advice on what actions to take as HIV positive.

He is also concerned with the fact that majority of the recorded cases involve the younger age group.

From January to June this year, a total of 5,401 cases were already recorded nationwide.  For age bracket 25-34 years old, there were already 2,714 cases recorded this year.

Baton said that mostly cases recorded are still because of the male to male sex, adding that Cebu has the most number of aforementioned cases.

Blood transfusion, sexual contact, IV drug use and mother to child cases are among the main reason to acquire HIV. (FREEMAN)