BY GERRY LEE GORIT
MISAMIS ORIENTAL – HIV cases in Gingoog City are now on an rising. This was disclosed by city councilor chairman on Heath Dr. Jerome Egargo Magan in a recent interview Mindanao Daily.
In fact, three people have already died recently in the city due to AIDS, the disease that spread into an HIV-positive person. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS.
In the Philippines, the number one cause of HIV infection is male to male sex.
Along this line, Magan is also worried that the actual number of HIV-positive persons in Gingoog City may be higher than 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 his city are getting younger as young as 15 years old.
He said that the city government of Gingoog is also institutionalizing the conducting 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 of 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 infections which are transmitted through sex.
Gingoog City government also has ample supply of medicines to combat the continuing spread of the virus into an infected person.
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