Online social networking blamed for rise of AIDS cases in RP

MANILA, Philippines - Health officials blamed yesterday online social networking for the rise in the cases of HIV/AIDS in the country last year.

Speaking at the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Hotel media forum, Ferchito Avelino, Philippine National AIDS Council secretariat director, said the “mushrooming” of social networking sites in the past three years could be linked to the rising AIDS cases in the Philippines.

“There has been no study but it has been pinpointed as one of the major factors in the rise of HIV/AIDS cases,” he said.

Dr. Eric Tayag, National Epidemiology Center (NEC) director, said in a previous interview some social networking sites cater to people looking for sex partners.

In December 2009 alone, 126 new AIDS cases were reported, “the highest in the past 25 years,” he added.

Tayag said a total of 835 AIDS cases were reported in the country last year.

The mode of AIDS/HIV transmission, as well as the profile of infected persons, has changed over the past three years from heterosexual intercourse to “men who have sex with men,” he added.

Tayag said most of the AIDS/HIV cases involved young male adults between 25 and 29 years old.

Men who have sex with men are not all homosexuals, he added.

Tayag said HIV/AIDS is not about being gay but about men having unprotected sex with men.

A majority of HIV/AIDS cases are found in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Davao City, he added.

Tayag said other factors that contributed to the high HIV-AIDS cases are the absence of an enabling environment where there is a lack of a social support system; and the lack of access to information about sex when adults are hesitant to discuss it with young adults, who then resort to doing their own research.

HIV/AIDS infection can be prevented through abstinence; delay in sex orientation; faithfulness or monogamy; safe sex; avoiding the use of the same needle in injections, and prenatal screening, he added.           – Helen Flores