HIV cases spiral among OFWs

In the early 1990s, I was a volunteer at the Remedios AIDS Foundation with headquarters in Malate, Manila. We gave away brochures, stickers, and pamphlets with information on the Human Immunodeficiancy Virus (HIV) that leads to Acute Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The owners of some establishments shooed us away when we asked permission to put information stickers on their premises. Other people pointedly told me, “But isn’t that only a gay disease?”

Then and now, I would say that the HIV virus knows no gender and could hit any segment of the population. One such hit is now being felt among overseas Filipino Workers (OFWS).  A total of 5,537 OFWs) have either tested positive for HIV or have full-blown AIDS. They comprise 11 percent of the 52,280 cases listed in the Department of Health’s National HIV/AIDS Registry as of February.

From January to February this year alone, 140 OFWs – 129 males and 11 females – were diagnosed as HIV positive. Almost all of the OFWs in the registry got the virus through sex—both heterosexual and homosexual.

In my daily radio show “Remoto Control” that ran for six years in another broadcasting corporation and that had a TV simulcast, I always gave the alphabet for preventing the HIV virus.

A is for abstinence. I would tell my viewers and listeners that if they cannot abstain from sex, then they should go to B—Be faithful to one partner. If they are like rabbits, I tell them to go to C—use condoms, which the World Health Organisation of the UN has deemed effective to shield us from the virus. We also have D- do not use infected needles. And the last is E-educate yourself.

Many of those with HIV are in the prime of their lives—in their 30s, which are their most productive years. Our government has the Pre-Departure Orientation seminar, or PDOS, for our OFWs, so our OFWs better listen up when this topic is tabled for the day.

I have talked to some Filipino seafarers who, when asked if they use condoms when they land ashore and meet casual partners (“Sabik na po kami sa sex”), told me blithely, “Of course not, sir. It’s a like a raincoat. And my casual partner doesn’t like it."

Of the 5,537 OFWs in the HIV/AIDS Registry, 86 percent, or 4,763, were male. And when these Filipino seafarers have been infected by the HIV virus come home and have unprotected sex with their wives or girlfriends, this could then account for an exponential increase in the number of Filipinos with AIDS.

I have worked with the United Nations Development Programme as a Communciations Analyst and our figures show that the rise of HIV has been stemmed in many countries. Only the Philippines and Bangladesh have rising numbers of HIV cases. We should follow the ABCDE of HIV prevention and shield ourselves from this virus. The horizon of hope is wide for those who are healthy.

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