Rights group urges PH: Act on HIV cases

Government policies restrict interventions proven to prevent the rising cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), specifically among men who have sex with men (MSM), Human Rights Watch (HRW)  said in a report released  on Thursday.

The report, “Fueling the Philippines’ HIV Epidemic: Government Barriers to Condom Use by Men Who Have Sex With Men,” documents the failure of national and local governments in the Philippines to deal with the growing HIV prevalence among the MSM group.

Several factors contribute to the worsening epidemic among adolescent males who engage in same-sex practices, according to HRW.

“National education on effective HIV prevention methods is nonexistent, and laws prohibit condom access and HIV testing to people under 18 without parental consent,” the group said.

Tenfold increase

The Philippines is facing one of the fastest-growing epidemics of HIV in the Asia-Pacific region, it added, noting that HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men has increased tenfold in the last five years.

The men-having-sex-with-men category remains the predominant mode of HIV transmission, according to the latest HIV/AIDS Registry of the Philippines (HARP) of the Department of Health (DOH).

Of the 38,114 HIV cases reported from January 1984 to October 2016, a total of 28,947 belonged to the MSM category, thereby making it the predominant mode of transmission.

The figure included the 17,650 cases acquired through homosexual contacts and 11,297 transmitted via bisexual contacts, said HARP.

For the July to October 2016 period alone, a total of 2,597 acquired HIV through MSM, including 1,650 homosexual contact and 947 bisexual contact.

Legacy of failed policies

“President  Duterte has inherited a legacy of failed or counterproductive policies of previous administrations that are contributing to the alarming increase in HIV infections among men who have sex with men,” said Carlos Conde, HRW’s Philippine researcher.

Conde said the past administrations apparently lacked the political will to deal with the problem.

“Reducing HIV transmission isn’t rocket science. But it does require the Duterte administration to implement an HIV prevention program and remove obstacles to condom and HIV testing access so that young Filipinos—particularly men who have sex with men—can protect themselves from an otherwise preventable illness,” he said.

 P1-billion budget cut

Government policies have created obstacles to condom access and HIV testing, according to HRW.

In January 2015, the Senate cut P1 billion from the DOH budget for contraceptives.

Doctors have warned that without the Senate reinstating the funding, government clinics are likely to exhaust their condom supplies in early 2017.

Local city governments in Balanga City and Sorsogon City have issued directives forbidding government clinics from procuring and distributing contraceptive products, including condoms, the report said.

Church influence

“These restrictions reflect the influence of conservative forces in government at both national and local levels, driven by the underlying authority of the Catholic Church. An estimated 80 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholics, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, which stated in 2015 that Filipinos who contract HIV are products of  ‘broken, dysfunctional families,’ has had a longstanding obstructive influence on government health and education policies,” it said.

HRW  said policies restricting access to condoms posed a threat to public health.

“The Duterte [administration] has a golden opportunity to remedy the legal and policy errors of previous administrations by implementing proven low-tech and low-cost interventions that can help stop in its tracks the country’s HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men,” Conde said.

“Failure to do so will only ensure that the already alarming number of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men will continue to rise,” he added.