Group sees number of HIV-infected OFWs hitting 4,000 mark this year

The number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may breach the 4,000 mark this year if the government fails to take immediate action, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) warned Monday.

In a statement, TUCP President Ernesto Herrera particularly slammed the Senate for “dilly-dallying” on a proposed measure seeking to launch highly effective new strategies to fight the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which is caused by HIV.

“While the Senate dilly-dallies, HIV is ravaging the lives of a growing number of Filipino workers here and abroad every day,” said Herrera, a former senator whose labor center is a member of the multi-sectoral Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC).

Citing the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry as of April 2015, the TUCP said the number of HIV-positive OFWs has reached 3,509 with the addition of 221 new cases from January to April this year.

Herrera said the affected OFWs have a median age of 33 “and are at the prime of their lives in terms of potential economic productivity.”

He said OFWs now comprise some 14 percent of the aggregate 24,936 cases in the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry as of April 2015.

Some 82 percent of all HIV-positive OFWs, or 2,892 cases, were male, with the median age of 33. The 617 HIV-positive female OFWs had a median age of 34, according to the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry.

Proposed measures

The House of Representatives has already passed on third and final reading House Bill 5178, or the proposed new AIDS Prevention and Control Law, which  seeks to launch highly effective new strategies to fight AIDS.

Authored by Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, the bill seeks to renew the country’s outmoded, 17-year-old AIDS Prevention and Control Law, or Republic Act 8504. It was passed in December 2014 and has already been to the Senate.

“However, its counterpart Senate Bill 186, introduced by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, is still pending action at the committee level up to now,” the TUCP said.

The proposed new AIDS Prevention and Control Law sets tougher penalties for entities and individuals who discriminate against HIV-positive people as well as those who violate their rights to confidentiality.

It also seeks to improve the living conditions of HIV-positive people through greater access to treatment, care and support.

“We have to provide greater support to and stronger protection for HIV-positive individuals, particularly against employment and workplace discrimination,” said Herrera.

Awareness

Herrera, meanwhile, urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to find new ways to strongly raise awareness of HIV, both among outbound and returning OFWs.

Under the 1998 AIDS Prevention and Control Law, the DOLE, through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, is supposed “to ensure that all OFWs shall undergo or attend a seminar on the cause, prevention and consequences of HIV/AIDS before certification for overseas employment.”

 “As the disease infects more Filipinos, we also expect a greater number of HIV-positive workers to face employment discrimination, thus the need for improved safeguards,” he said.
 
A total of 2,409 new HIV cases were discovered countrywide from January to April this year, up 32 percent from 1,825 in the same four-month period in 2014.

In the whole of 2014, a total of 6,011 cases were detected nationwide, up 25 percent compared to 4,814 in 2013.

AIDS is being spread in the country primarily via unprotected sexual contact, predominantly male-to-male sex, and secondarily through needle-sharing among injecting drug users. —KBK, GMA News