More MSMs With HIV Than Female Entertainers In Baguio City

May 29, 2021 JUST IN

BAGUI CITY (May 29, 2021) – For more than a decade, 13 years to be exact, more “men having sex with men” in the Summer Capital are getting infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) than female sex workers.

And is still progressing, Assistant city health officer Dr. Celia Brillantes of the Baguio AIDS Watch Council (AWAC) said, citing that out of 88 HIV patients at the Regional Health and Wellness Center HIV treatment hub, 85 are males with 72 getting infected by having sex with other men.

Of the 88 patients, she said, 68 are currently receiving treatment after undergoing free blood tests and chest x-rays.

However, Brillantes pointed out that a CD4 CT machine is needed to check their immunity levels to complete the tests.

She also warned that HIV continues to be a serious health threat in the country with a record high of 32 infections reported daily or a total of 85,651 since January of 1984.

She disclosed that AWAC has established a new online HIV approach to expand its outreach to new and old patients. Also, a new law on AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) in the form of RA 11166 or the Philippine AIDS and HIV Policy Act passed in December 2018 or 20 years after the country’s first AIDS/ HIV law, she said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had welcomed the new law as it helps elevate attention to HIV/ AIDS and address some of the critical bottlenecks in the program, Brillantes said.

She hopes to work closely with councilor Joel Alangsab, city council health committee chair, to localize RA 11166 into an ordinance and institutionalize best practices on HIV/AIDS in the city.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong, city health officer Dr. Rowena Galpo and Alangsab led other officials and guests in a candle lighting ceremony last Monday during the flag-raising rites in support of International AIDS Candlelight Memorial with the theme, “We Remember, We take Action, We live beyond HIV”.

According to the Mayo Clinic website, AIDS is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by HIV. By damaging your immune system, HIV interferes with your body’s ability to fight infection and disease. HIV is a sexually transmitted infection and can also be spread by contact with infected blood or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding.

Artemio A. Dumlao