Phl has highest growth of HIV cases worldwide

EDITORIAL

The Philippines has registered the fastest growth in HIV cases starting 2014, based on report of experts from the World Health Organization who said the alarming situation needed multi-sectoral approach to help curb the problem even as the Dept. of Health intensified efforts to address this.  

The WHO said 28 HIV cases are recorded daily in the country while children are born with HIV every 12 seconds in the global village. Of the 36,647 HIV recorded cases in the country this year, 81 percent are males primarily because of the men having sex with men while 13 percent are females.

Health officials have advocated grassroots solutions to curb the menace.

In Baguio, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan cited parents’ key role in teaching children proper values that will prevent them from engaging in sexual activities that might infect them with the dreaded Human Immune Virus (HIV) and from being involved in vices that will ruin their future

According to him, the government cannot solve the problem alone and the private sector, through non-government organizations and civil society groups,  had been conducting massive information and education campaigns to teach people how to prevent HIV infection.

On the other hand, he added the City Health Services Office is doing its intensified inspection of night establishments around the city to check on the compliance of commercial sex workers to safe sex.

He admitted existence of freelance sex workers is the primary problem because the local government cannot monitor their activities, thus, the higher risk to their partners in acquiring the illness.

He narrated several bar owners admitted to him they cannot police their commercial sex workers because, after the closing time in their establishments, some workers go out with the customers beyond their work hours.

While the practice of safe sex is one of the identified solutions to the worsening and alarming HIV cases, he claimed the parents should always know the activities of their children to guide them on the right things to do.

He appealed to the young generations to always listen to the advice of their parents, teachers and health professionals, and avoid engaging in activities that will lead to their being infected with an incurable illness that will ruin their future.