HIV cases in January reach record levels in the Philippines
Philippines, Mar 05, 2010
The Health Secretary of the Philippines, Esperanza Cabral, said on Thursday (March 4) that she would seek more public funds to distribute condoms among high-risk groups after Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cases jumped to a national high of 143 people in January 2010, Reuters reported. According to Cabral, the number of people diagnosed with HIV in January is the highest reported number since the disease was first detected in the country in 1984. At the beginning of 2009, the health ministry reported an average of about 60 Filipinos being HIV-positive each month, but that average increased dramatically to about 126 cases in December 2009. The health department said that the majority of January's cases were males infected through sexual contact with men, and were within the age of 25-29. Cabral is alarmed over the spike in HIV cases and was quoted by Reuters as saying, "At the rate we are going, in three years we are going to have more than 30,000 people with HIV/AIDS in the Philippines." She added that she will continue to promote and distribute condoms as a tool to create awareness on HIV/AIDS prevention, and would appeal to the government to fund the purchase of condoms for disease prevention rather than contraception, Reuters reported. In opposition to Cabral's efforts to promote condom use in her nation, conservative Roman Catholic bishops are criticizing her policy of encouraging condom use, saying "it weakens the country's moral fiber and destroys family life." Because the issue threatens to exacerbate the already strained relations between the government and the church, the government has ceased allocation of funds for condoms. Church pressure had previously influenced Congress to block a reproductive health bill that they said promoted sex education and artificial contraceptives. According to Reuters, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Nereo Odchimar, believes funding should be better spent to fight diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer and influenza. Since 1984, the Philippines has reported 4,424 HIV cases, of which 832 developed into full-blown AIDS, resulting in 314 deaths, according to government figures.
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