Night entertainment

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – Nightspots abound in this summer resort offering all forms of entertainment from “guest relations” services in seedy to gay bars to bars which feature country, retro, jazz, rock, reggae,  and pop music.

Name it, you have it. But this Yuletide season, establishments offering companionship for male and female patrons and tourists out for a thrill were the top grossers, if radio reports are to be believed.

This, while the number persons affected by HIV and AIDS continues to rise in this summer capital. It is for this reason Health officials are advocating “clean entertainment to stop the rise of the dreaded disease.  The Reproductive Health and Wellness Center of the Baguio City Health Services Office is focusing its sights among night entertainers.

During the Baguio City celebration of the recent World AIDS Day, Dr. Celia Flor Brillantes, head of the Social Hygiene Clinic of the Baguio CHSO, said education campaign and advocacy is now focused on making night entertainers understand the idea of a “clean entertainment” to prevent the spread of sexually acquired diseases.

Brillantes said “clean entertainment” encourages night workers from entertaining and mingling with costumers inside establishments and avoiding sexual contact in the workplace or outside. Hotels and inns have registered high occupancy rates despite expensive room rates the past season and reports have it that some if not most women and men entertainers have been doing the entertaining inside the more private rooms.  

“We educate our entertainers to just sit with costumers, talk with them, eat with them, dance and entertain them but having sex with costumers should be prevented,” she said. “With these methods of the clean entertainment, night entertainers would avoid catching sexually acquired diseases such as STD, STI, HIV and AIDS which have increased in the city.”

Although most sectors see this concept as impossible, Brillantes said she was optimistic that by educating night entertainers on effects of different sexually acquired diseases to their lives and their families if they would be infected, there were positive results of this campaign.

Data showed Baguio recorded HIV cases at 21 percent increase with six to seven cases added every year since 2013 and most of the new HIV cases were those of MSM (men having sex with men).

Out of 300 MSM tested, nine were HIV positive, and out of the total 5,000 tested in the city, 12 were positive including a mother and child, Brillantes said.

In 2014, there were 6,011 total cases of HIV in the country reported to the HIV and AIDS Registry, making the reported cases from 1984-2014 to a total of 22,527.

Meanwhile, during recent celebration of the World AIDS Day at the Baguio Convention Center, two HIV/AIDS positive shared their experiences as they battle the deadly disease. They encouraged the audience, mostly night entertainers to avoid sexual contact with different partners to avoid acquiring and spreading the diseases.

The recent World AIDS Day celebration with the theme “Getting to zero… zero new HIV infection, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths” was headed by the city government in coordination with Baguio City Surveillance Team, the Baguio AIDS Watch Council and the Baguio Association of Bars and Entertainment Society.