IT WAS World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. There were calls for heightened vigilance against an epidemic that has infected nearly 60,000 Filipinos and killed almost 3,000.
Indeed fighting AIDS through greater awareness and prevention should be a top priority. One sector that appears to be neglected are our overseas workers.
According to the party-list ACTS-OFW, one in 10 Filipinos living with HIV is a migrant worker. This should not be taken lightly. Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are especially at risk because once they are exposed to foreign cultures, they tend to let their guard down.
A total of 697 OFWs were newly diagnosed with HIV or the human immunodeficiency virus from January to September this year, up 13.7 percent from 613 in the same period in 2017, according to the party-list.
The nine-month figures brought to 6,135 the cumulative number of OFWs found infected with HIV since the government began passive surveillance in 1984. All told, OFWs with HIV now account for 10 percent of the 59,135 confirmed cases in the National HIV/AIDS Registry as of September this year.
Of the 6,135 OFWs in the registry, 5,280, or 86 percent, are male with the median age of 32 years. Majority of the male cases, or 71 percent, were infected through sexual contact among MSM, or men who have sex with men (2,176 from male-to-male sex and 1,586 from sex with both males and females). The median age of female OFWs in the registry is 34 years.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration must devote more resources to preventive education among OFWs and their families.
HIV causes AIDS, or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which destroys the human body’s natural ability to fight off all kinds of infections. The condition still does not have any known cure. Antiretroviral treatment (ART) has been known to slow down the advance of HIV in cases detected early. At least 31,458 Filipinos living with HIV were listed as undergoing ART as of September, according to the Department of Health.
The government should strengthen its campaign to combat HIV/AIDS utilizing modern means to disseminate information about it such as producing educational video materials that could be disseminated to schools, local institutions, targeted people’s organizations, and communities all over the country.
It should also work hard to eliminate HIV-related stigma and discrimination by holding seminars targeting support groups of People Living with HIV, including family members, friends, and other enabling organizations.
We would urge OFWs who believe they engaged in high-risk sexual behavior in the past to get themselves voluntarily tested for HIV. Early detection and ART have been known to slow down the advance of HIV. There is hope.
