AIDS rise in Cebu City alarming

CEBU CITY — Health officials have described as alarming the AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) situation in this city after noting that it has 50 of the 57 known cases in Central Visayas.

City epidemiologist Ilya Abellanosa Tac-an said in a forum the other day that while the city averages four new AIDS cases each year, this year the number has risen to six.

"We can say that the situation is, indeed, alarming," Tac-an said.

Debbie Catulong of the Bidlisiw Foundation, a non-government organization, attributed the increase to the corresponding rise in the number of commercial sex workers.

Based on its records, Bidlisiw said there are now at least 20,000 commercial sex workers in the city, 3,000 of whom are minors as young as nine.

Catulong identified poverty as a main reason for the rise in the flesh trade. — Freeman News Service