By RALPH JOHN MIJARES
ROXAS City — Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is spreading very fast among Filipinos, a Provincial Health Office (PHO) personnel said.
There is one new HIV infection every two hours, PHO medical specialist Dr. Evelyn Bolido said, citing Department of Health (DOH) data, during the observance of the 31st International AIDS Candlelight Memorial at the Villareal Stadium poolside here Friday.
Sometime before 2007, one new Filipino acquires the virus every 24 hours.
The spread of the virus these days is “fast and furious,” Bolido said.
In the Philippines, there is an estimated 32,000 people living with HIV (PLHIV) as of December 2013, according to DOH.
Only about 15,000 are aware of having HIV, while more than 17,000 others are either unaware or unwilling to have themselves examined.
As of last year, in Western Visayas, Iloilo has the highest number of HIV cases with 208. It is followed by Negros Occidental with 172; Capiz, 39; Aklan, 32; Antique, 10; and Guimaras, six.
Nine out of 10 HIV cases are males having risky sexual behaviors, Bolido said.
The virus is commonly transferred among men who have sex with men, a considerable percentage of whom are young professionals, she said.
Bolido encouraged PLHIV to have a healthy lifestyle, drink moderately and consult with professional health workers.
She said the only way to determine whether or not a person has the virus is through HIV screening, which is available at the Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital and the City Health Office here.
Medical confidentiality is always observed when a person undergoes such test, she stressed.
Bolido said that, once acquired, the virus can develop from two weeks to three months but might take years to manifest in people with strong immune systems.
HIV weakens the immune system, making an infected person more vulnerable to tuberculosis — which becomes difficult to cure even after undergoing treatment for six to nine months — chronic pneumonia, chronic fever, oral thrush, and prolonged diarrhea, possibly to the point of excreting blood.
HIV infection would eventually lead to the fatal AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Capiz and Roxas City health offices observed the AIDS Candlelight Memorial together with a group of gay people, Capiz Shells.
Formed by the said health offices in 2010, Capiz Shells spreads awareness about sexually transmitted infections or STIs, HIV, AIDS and safe sex.
An annual event since 1983, the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial is the oldest HIV-AIDS awareness campaign in the world that honors the deceased victims of the disease./PN
