BY GERRY LEE GORIT
MISAMIS ORIENTAL – There is an increase in HIV cases in Gingoog City according to City Councilor and Chairman on Health, Dr. Jerome Egargo Magan in a recent interview with Mindanao Daily.
He also reported that at least three people have already died recently in the city allegedly because of HIV. In the Philippines, the number one cause of HIV infection is male to male sex.
The City Councilor, however, did not give figures as to how many were recorded this year as compared to the HIV cases in the previous years.
Magan is worried that the actual number of HIV-positive persons in Gingoog City may be higher than the existing data because not everybody is willing to come forward and be tested.
HIV testing takes only a few seconds of drawn blood but the stigma of one actually revealing his or her face in the testing area still lingers among Filipino minds.
Magan said that HIV-positive persons in this city are getting younger – as young as 15 years old.
He said that the city government of Gingoog is also institutionalizing the conduct of seminars among the youth so they would be aware of the danger of unprotected sex.
Magan also said that not all HIV-positive persons in Gingoog City are residents of the place. Some have transferred there from their hometowns in Butuan and Cagayan de Oro cities.
He said illicit sex has existed since the dawn of history but the jump to HIV human transmission occurred only in the 1980s.
Aside from HIV and AIDS, the city government’s campaign is also geared against the spread of other infectious diseases which are transmitted through sex.
The City Government of Gingoog, Magan said, has ample supply of medicines to combat the continuing spread of the virus from those already infected. ###
