OFWs account for one-third of HIV-AIDS cases in RP

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) account for one-third of the country’s 2,965 HIV-AIDS cases recorded since 1984, but only because they are the ones usually tested for the disease.

The figures do not indicate that OFWs have risky behaviors, which make them prone to the virus, AIDS Society of the Philippines (ASP) project coordinator Bong Yap said.

Yap told The STAR that migrant workers are just the ones commonly tested for Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) as a requirement for their overseas employment.

Records of the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) of the Department of Health show that from Jan. 1984 to last September, there had been 2,965 HIV cases, of which 776 had developed into full-blown AIDS.

A total of 1,031 or 35 percent of the 2,965 HIV/AIDS cases were OFWs, of whom 340 were seafarers; 172, domestic helpers; 93, employers; 79, entertainers; and 64, health workers.

Last September, 25 new HIV cases were recorded. Six of them were male OFWs whose occupations vary – seafarers, employees, cook, nurse, and entertainers.

There were also three new AIDS cases but two of them had died because of complications. Both got infected through homosexual contact.

Records show that of all the 2,965 HIV/AIDS cases, 307 or 40 percent were “already dead at the time of the report due to AIDS-related complications.” Eighty-seven percent of them acquired the virus through sexual intercourse.

To educate migrant workers about HIV/AIDS, Yap said several non-government organizations (NGOs) are taking part in the pre-departure orientation seminar being administered by the Department of Labor and Employment for OFWs.

In the seminar, Yap said departing OFWs are educated on how the AIDS virus can be acquired and how it can be avoided.

Yap added that the ASP, also an NGO, has proposed to the DOH that all laboratory clinics be required to have a counseling system for OFWs who tested positive for HIV.

“Most of the laboratories don’t know how to deal with those who tested positive for HIV. They even tend to violate the confidentiality (rule so those who tested positive) get stigmatized and no longer go back,” he said.

He said counseling is important for HIV patients so laboratories should be tapped to help in the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign.       – Sheila Crisostomo