There used to be 82 cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) leading to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Davao City. Of the number, 16 have died, leaving only 66 cases.
This was revealed by councilor Bernard E. Al-ag, council health committee chair, in a speech before members of the Rotary Club of East Davao in which he cited statistics from the Davao City AIDS Registry (Dacar).
Al-ag said that of those found positive, 72 are males and 10 females. Their ages ranged from 17 to 44 years. They come from various sectors of the community–students, overseas Filipino workers, businessmen, employees and professionals.
“About 14 cases were classified as youth (15 to 24 years), of which 12 were reported to have been recorded between 1993 to June 2010. Recently, two cases were added to the tally from July to September 2010, raising the cases among young people to 14,” the 35 year old councilor from the third district continued.
Nationwide, from 1984 to 2010 there have been 5,125 cases reported with 841 developing into AIDS and 322 dying in the process.Of the key cities with over 1% HIV prevalence, three cities were lumped together in this order: Cebu, Davao and Manila, as per the 2010 Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry.
What is interesting about the statistics Al-ag bared was that the highest number of monitored cases involved men having sex with men (MSM). “In fact, of the 82 cases last year, 72 were men, most of whom were MSM,” he added.
Al-ag’s revelation to the Rotarians merely confirmed what earlier medical studies had been saying all along: at greatest risk are homosexuals and bisexual males and their respective male partners. The same medical studies discovered that a retrovirus is a causative agent and that this virus occurs in the blood, the saliva, or semen of individuals carrying the virus. In this way, the virus is easilly transmitted from person to person by intimate contact.
The illness consists of bouts of various kinds of infections, often involving the lungs, plus the development in about 1/3 of cases into a kind of skin malignancy. The beginning symptoms are non-productive coughs and breathing difficulty.
Unknown to many people, there is an existing AIDS ordinance in Davao City passed in 2002, but its implementation has been half-hearted. A possible reason are the many loopholes in the ordinance, volunteered Camille Gestuveo, councilor Al-ag’s legislative staff. A classic case was the arrest by the criminal investigation and detective group (CIDG) of some commercial sex workers for possessing condoms which the lawmen interpreted to be prima facie evidence of prostitution. What needs to be done is to orient arresting officeers on the provisions of the ordinance which allow distribution of condoms as a protective device against HIV-AIDS, Gestuveo adcded.
Media people recall that the local law calls for the creation of a Davao City AIDS Council but this group has not been organized at all, or it has been in a state of suspended animation, while HIV-AIDS cases continue to multiply unabated even as the distribution of condoms has the bone of contention between pro-life and pro-choice advocates.
Councilor Al-ag, an optometrist who placed 7th in the 1996 optometry board licensure exams, stressed that while there is an AIDS ordinance, “we cannot legislate the sexual behavior of people. The rule of thumb has always been to campaign for faithfulness to one’s spouse or, if not possible, use the condom,” he told his audience of Rotarians in their regular weekly meeting.
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