Phone calls about STD swamp DOH

Movie star Kris Aquino’s story of contracting sexually transmitted disease allegedly from Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez has made people conscious of their own sexual health, prompting them to call the Department of Health (DOH) to inquire about STD.

DOH offices, notably the Media Relations Unit, have received about 20 telephone calls from curious people after watching Kris tell a nationally televised primetime interview that Marquez infected her with an STD last March. Kris described Marquez as an "incurable" womanizer.

While she did not specify during last Tuesday’s interview the STD, she told The STAR’s Ricky Lo that she was infected with chlamydia, which if not checked and properly treated could ruin an infected woman’s fallopian tube.

People who called up the DOH asked about the symptoms and types of STD, and how an infected individual can be treated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Roderick Poblete, head of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), said he hopes that an increased awareness about STD will not further stigmatize and isolate STD carriers.

"STD is no longer called as such by the World Health Organization since 2000, but now referred to as sexually transmitted infection (STI). The term disease has a bad connotation so it was dropped by the organization to erase the stigma on patients," Poblete told The STAR.

An estimated 20 types of STI can infect an individual, but the four most common are syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydiosis and trichomoniasis. They are caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites that are transmitted through intimate sexual acts with an infected partner.

STI are curable except for those caused by viruses such as herpes and hepatitis B. The most serious STI is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

In another interview, Dr. Dominic Garcia, program manager of the AIDS Society of the Philippines (ASP), said Kris’ revelation should be taken by the public as an eye-opener that STI and AIDS spare no one, not even the daughter of a former president.

Garcia said he hopes that Kris’ disclosure will increase the public’s awareness about the menace of STI, and that this further awareness will translate to the public’s avoidance of sexual practices that may exposed them to STI.

"We hope that we can get something good out of this (scandal) like possible reduction of STI cases," Garcia said.

A medical doctor told The STAR that one of the easiest and most convenient ways to know whether a male might be infected with STI is to squeeze his penis. If it hurts, it is a possible symptom that the male has STI.

Street-smart men who sell sex in Metro Manila are known to squeeze their clients’ penises in order to avoid contracting STI, and clients do the same thing to these men to protect themselves, an urban sociologist said in a separate interview.