A city health physician (CHP) of this city expressed concern over human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positivity rates among men who have sex with men (MSM) which she described as worsening.
In an interview, City Health Physician Gwendolyn Gabit of Rural Health Unit III said that the high HIV prevalence among MSM means that members of this group have an increased chance of being exposed to the virus due to mainly having sexual relations within this group.
She, however, said that there are other factors that put MSM at a heightened risk of HIV.
She informed that MSM between 15-24 years old pose high HIV infection and sexual risk but that, ironically, only a few members of the group want to know their HIV status through a voluntary testing.
Against the national statistics of 27 reported cases daily, Gabit disclosed that there is one case of HIV in 2016 in Tabuk City explaining that the person got the infection from having sexual activities with the same sex and is now undergoing treatment.
She said that there were six cases reported in the province from 1998 to 2015 and that most of them are MSM.
In 2016, only 30 individuals went for testing and only 11 for the first quarter of 2017, Gabit said.
When asked about the reliability of HIV testing results, Gabit said that it is strengthened by a sequence of confirmatory tests done at accredited health institution like nearby Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) and Baguio General Hospital (BGH). All samples with reactive (‘positive’) results or with results that are difficult to interpret are re-tested several times and samples with negative results are not routinely re-tested.
The rural health physician also said that those who were tested to be infected with HIV will not be admitted nor isolated but instead be counseled for an effective treatment procedure and medicines are given free for a lifetime treatment.
The doctor said that only certain body fluids—blood, semen, pre- seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk—from an HIV-infected person can transmit HIV and that the most common mode of transmission are sexual behaviors, needle or syringe use.
Alarmed by the situation, in 2015, the City Health Office (CHO) started its intensified information education campaign (IEC) on HIV, sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and teenage pregnancy awareness among selected 4th year high school students and started to distribute condoms and lubricants among the straight men and gays since 2016.
Calling HIV as an alarming threat to human health, Gabit said that the IEC is the best strategy to eliminate HIV cases because it creates awareness as to how people can possibly be infected and what are the preventive ways to stop cases from soaring.
Counseling service to risk groups such as the guest relation officers (GROs), MSM, uniformed men and pregnant women is also very important, she said.
“Sexually active young people should get tested because the earlier they know their HIV status, the earlier they can seek care and treatment to improve their quality of life,” Gabit emphasized.
She also underscored the need to remove the stigma against the disease, saying it was one of the reasons why the virus continued to spread as target population was discouraged from getting tested due to fear of being discriminated against.
Article VII (Discriminatory Acts and Policies) of RA 8504 (Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998) prohibits all forms of discrimination among HIV infected people on the basis of their actual, perceived or suspected status.
Gabit reminded about the importance of getting tested and knowing your partner’s HIV status and advised to have less risky sex, to use condoms, to limit the number of sexual partners, to get tested and treated for STIs, by talking to health care providers and not to inject drugs.
HIV testing is a regular service of Tabuk City RHU-III. **By Darwin S. Serion/Tabuk City Information Office
