Visayan solons alarmed by rising HIV cases
Is HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) now an epidemic in the Philippines?
This question was recently raised by two Visayan congressmen as they urged the Department of Health to make a public disclosure on the true state of the country’s HIV situation.
Representatives Mel Senen Sarmiento of Samar and Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City were alarmed over an information they received that there are now at least nine cases of HIV infection every day or one Filipino is infected with HIV every three hours.
“If this is true, this is truly alarming because this rate of infection can already be considered as epidemic. We need to take drastic measures to secure the health and safety of our citizens if HIV has really gone out of control,” Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento said his office tried to verify this information and was shocked to learn that the DOH has exactly the same figure. He quoted Genesis May Samonte, chief of the DOH epidemiology center’s HIV surveillance department, as saying that records showed nine new HIV cases since January this year.
“That is one Filipino infected every three hours! This grim statistics should already alert our health authorities to take aggressive measures to contain and stop HIV infection from turning into a full- blown epidemic,” said Sarmiento.
Treñas, for his part, said he received the same information from occupational medicine doctors who revealed to him that from three cases of HIV per day last year, the number of infection rose to nine per day through the last six months.
“That’s 200 percent jump in the number of cases in just matter of months! We do progressive analysis; this number of HIV infections could even triple in the next six months if the government fails to come out with the best formula to solve this problem. God forbid but we are already seeing an HIV epidemic,” Treñas said.
Based on his information, the congressman said that a sizable increase in the new cases of HIV infection mostly come from the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, some of whom are still in their teens.
“I was told that there were recorded infection of girls as young as 18 and 19 years old and many of the new recorded cases are call center agents. The statistics are truly grim and alarming,” he said.
Sarmiento and Treñas said they will ask the House committee on health to ask the DOH to conduct an HIV situationer briefing so that Congress can get a clearer picture on what .legislation may be required to address the problem.
Sarmiento said he is interested to know the demographic profile of the new infections and what actions are being undertaken to stop HIV carriers from spreading the disease further. He also noted that one of the biggest problems the DOH obviously faces is the backtracking of people who were in contact with the carriers.
“This is very difficult to do especially because HIV does not manifest immediately and it is not easily discovered even upon undergoing medical tests. Even some carriers do not know that he has been infected because the HIV incubation period can actually take up to 10 years depending on how their body responds to the virus. This means that they are spreading the disease without them knowing it,” Sarmiento said.
Treñas suggested that the DOH should take aggressive steps to backtrack and create a profile of all individuals who may have been exposed to HIV. One such measure is the full quarantine of all newly discovered carriers until after a full accounting of people, with whom they came into contact with, are fully accounted for.
Treñas added that the DOH should also consider launching a public information campaign on the alarming state of the country’s HIV situation instead of keeping it under wraps while trying to address the problem.