Northern Mindanao now HIV-AIDS hot spot

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines— Health officials said Northern Mindanao is now a hot spot for Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV-AIDS) after 30 new cases were recorded in the first quarter of the year alone.

Dr. Evelyn Magsayo, sexually transmitted infection prevention control program officer for the Department of Health (DOH) in Northern Mindanao,  described the transmission of HIV in the region as “fast and furious.”

She illustrated how fast the disease was spreading by saying that in 2008, there were just 45 cases of HIV recorded in the region. Twenty-four cases were recorded for the whole year of 2009, which pushed the figure up at 69. But for the first quarter of this year alone, 30 cases have already been recorded, she said.

Fritzie Estoque, chairperson of Misamis Oriental-Cagayan de Oro Aids Network (Mocan), a coalition of government and private institutions on HIV-AIDS concerns, said the youngest patient detected in the region was a 14-year-old boy.

“This is not part of a mother-to-child HIV infection,” Estoque said.

The oldest recorded person with HIV in the region was a 70-year-old man, Estoque said.

Estoque said unprotected sexual activities among the youth were to blame for the fast increase in HIV cases in Northern Mindanao.

He added that there are “text clans” that help spread the disease. “They meet for sexual encounters and these usually involve multiple partners in a single night,” said Rey Namocatcat of Tingug-CdO, a group advocating HIV-AIDS awareness.

Namocatcat said recent statistics revealed that most cases involved men having sex with men. He said many men shied away from testing due to various reasons, among them, sexual discrimination.

Joey Retuya, city health officer, said they were not singling out gays but he agreed with Namocatcat that discrimination against gays was one reason only a few wanted to be tested.

Retuya said the city government continued its surveillance and monitoring of the vulnerable and high-risk sector, including commercial sex workers, to prevent the spread of the disease. Bobby Lagsa, with reports from Eldie Aguirre and Orlando Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao