Preventing The Spread Of HIV In The Philippines

Introduction

Sexually transmitted illnesses (STDs) are infections that spread person to person through intimate contact, STDs have an effect on everyone even babies, teenagers, healthy people, prosperous or the poor. According to WebMD (2019), it produces bacteria, parasites and viruses that have an effect on everyone, it causes many health problems but it can be more extreme for women. Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), in particular that is a kind of STD, alters the immune system, increasing the risk of other infections and diseases. Without treatment, the infection might development to an advanced stage called AIDS (Felman, 2018).

In the early years of 2000, HIV had a low charge in the Philippines. HIV/AIDS was not yet known as a panic-inducing epidemic in the Philippines (Mateo, 2004). The rates in all the common at risk organizations such as sex workers, male on male sex, etc. have remained below 1%. The incidence of STDs is increasing at that time, suggesting that an explosive epidemic may to appear in the future if the virus is able to go to the common at risk groups.

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The Philippine government has confronted the problem f HIV/AIDS with an action design that puts emphasis on the response of the local government agencies, involvement and guide of non-governmental agencies (NGOs), incorporation of HIV/AIDS schooling into the college curriculum, and legal guidelines forbidding discrimination towards persons with HIV/AIDS or belonging to groups who are at risk (Mateo 2004). In a country, where STDs has not yet grown to be a generalized epidemic (UNAIDS, 2013) the government want to aggressively to confront the problem. One need to solely look at Vietnam and Indonesia to have an example of delayed epidemics, a comparable trajectory may eventually manifest in the Philippines (Mateo, 2004). In these countries, inactiveness of the authorities led to larger rates of people who are infected.

In the Philippines, there are 1,047 new HIV that people are infected with that are reported HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (2018). The median age was 28 years old. Alarmingly, the age range of those at risk is 15-24 years old. The cause of this is due to youth now not having ample expertise of the virus. Most of the time college-educated Filipino youths had unprotected sex at some point of their first time. The reluctance of children to use condom is another possible explanation for the growing rate of STD. Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality (2013) showed that the percentage of contraception is the least amongst 15-19 years old, 21 at 44% and amongst single sexually single women, what they call “withdrawal” used to be most common. The Independent (2015) say that teenagers say that condoms are hard to use mainly for those who are sexually inexperienced, and additionally, it detracts from sensual pleasure. Furthermore, many youngsters do not find themselves at risk of contracting the virus.

Main Body

HIV is one of the pinnacle health priorities for the authorities of the Philippines. The wide variety of new infections in the Philippines has doubled in the previous six (6) years from an estimated 4,300 in 2010 to an estimated 10,500 in 2016 (UNAIDs, 2018). The Philippines has turn out to be the quickest developing HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific. It continues to see accelerated expansion of the HIV infection. National HIV and AIDS Registry (2018) reveals an exponential enlarge in newly reported HIV, it has expanded to one in every three hours in 2012.

The uptrend in the epidemic is not surprising considering the much less than most beneficial application coverage for most at-risk populations. Moreover, stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV remain a problem for the Philippines. Although protection of human rights for those with HIV is covered in the Philippine AIDS Law, the PLHIV Stigma Index Report (2010) still showed discrimination amongst the population further confounding the AIDS response.

In addition, discrimination associated to sexual orientation and gender identification nonetheless persists, driving individuals of the LGBT community to situations that place their physical, mental and social well-being at greater risk. Stigma and discrimination places many of the populace in the shadows, unable to get admission to life-saving prevention and treatment.

The AIDS epidemic is trouble that should get urgent action amongst the people, particularly in places that has a high chance of infections (National Chair of the League of Cities of the Philippines, 2018). The Philippine authorities agreed that there is a need to scale-up offerings tailored to key populations that go beyond female intercourse workers. More than 90% of new HIV infections are happening amongst men who have intercourse with men and transgender people. Condom use among guys who have sex with men and transgender people hovers at 50% and 37% respectively and HIV trying out is low. Only 16% of MSM knew their HIV fame in 2015 (UNAIDS, 2018).

The UNAIDS also leads the world advocacy to help with tackling the problem of AIDS via working with and offering technical assist to the government, civil society and the personal area (Mendoza, 2018). Local governments in the Philippines has the assets and could start with more creative HIV prevention services. For example, Quezon City has opened three Sundown clinics that supply speedy HIV checking out and counselling in a non-stigmatizing environment for homosexual men, guys who have sex with men and transgender people. The city has additionally increased its HIV funding nine instances seeing that 2012 and has been urging different provinces to follow go well with (UNAIDS, 2018).

Conclusion

Such a gargantuan public health trouble seems, at the outset, too large to combat. But despite the colossal task going through everyone, there are useful starting factors for identifying solutions. For one, at least from an economic point of view, preventing HIV is indeed higher than curing it. This is especially relevant to developing nations like the Philippines where sources to fight HIV-AIDS are severely constrained. According to (Powell, 2019) the most comparatively cheap measures are mass media campaigns, whether it is through television, radio, newspapers, or the internet, so that people can disseminate data and help educate the public.

Another solution is anti-retroviral therapy. It is listed among the least affordable measures to fight HIV-AIDS. It’s at least 80 times more costly than mass media campaigns, which are considered amongst the cheapest buys. Estimates advise that anti-retroviral therapy may limit the number of new infections with the aid of solely 40,000 yearly, while preventive measures can prevent as a lot as 3.53 million new infections yearly (HIV Treatment: The Basics, 2019).

And due to the fact that the HIV-AIDS epidemic is largely borne by unprotected sex, it is vital that secure sex be promoted as a much as possible. Condoms, when precisely and consistently used, are considered an essential section of the global marketing campaign of HIV prevention. The RH Law could assist in this regard. By mandating authorities to provide for contraceptives such as condoms, the RH Law can be a key player not only in the reproductive fitness front, but also in the HIV-AIDS prevention front.

Preventing the spread of HIV doesn’t have to be too complicated or too costly. Measures as simple as data campaigns and condom distribution can go a long way in keeping off the quantity of new HIV cases in a low rate. Battling HIV requires a buildup of effective mind-set and self-confidence amongst the people who are afflicted or potentially afflicted. Stigmas and discrimination involving sex, condom use, and HIV-AIDS only serve to compound and now but not reduce the burden felt by these people. Only when we ultimately destroy these misconceptions and biases will we be able the battle HIV-AIDS and without a doubt, take flight.