ILOILO City – The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said a new framework can help fight the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
In his message during the commemoration of the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial (IACM) on May 19 at St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary in Jaro district here, Reverend Father Dan Vicente Cancino Jr., MI., executive secretary of the Commission on Health Care of CBCP, proposed a new human rights framework to combat the disease.
He said this new framework offers a more coherent approach and a more comprehensive and more practical framework of analysis and action of societal root causes of HIV and AIDS.
“The human rights framework focuses on how people living with HIV would remove from their lives discrimination, indifference or denial,” he said.
The traditional public health approach is comprised of education, information, testing, and treatment, but there is a need to be practical, stressed Cancino, thus the new framework.
“Unless we have this in our society, the cases of HIV would still be increasing,” he said.
HIV is not only a medical issue; it is also a social and moral issue, sai Cancino.
“Gone are the days when we talk about medicine; gone are the days when we talk about testing. They are for free,” he said.
HIV antiretroviral treatments are given for free in health facilities by the Department of Health (DOH) and testing can also be accessed in social hygiene clinics.
Cancino also urged the Department of Education to create a more comprehensive sexuality education for the youth, which is not solely based on body structures and anatomy.
“Sexuality is more than that. It is about relationships,” he added.
This year’s IACM was spearheaded by the Philippine Catholic HIV and AIDS Network – Iloilo, which is under the PhilCHAN of the CBCP, in collaboration with the DOH Western Visayas. (PIA-Iloilo/PN)
