Avoiding a death sentence

A few weeks ago someone I know brought her ailing child to a private health center in Metro Manila, and was surprised by a crowd of mostly youthful-looking people waiting in a long line for blood testing.

The mother was told by hospital staff that the tests were for HIV, and that the number of people having themselves tested has been on the rise.

Government health experts say this is happening nationwide. The HIV infection rate has slowed down in many countries, but not in the Philippines, where the virus is now spreading fastest among all the Asia-Pacific states.

The long lines for testing indicate a spreading infection, but also increased public awareness of the risks of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus. Testing is important particularly because a person can have HIV for up to 10 years without manifesting symptoms, according to Dr. Eric Tayag, Department of Health (DOH) director for knowledge management and information technology service.

Health experts can’t emphasize enough that early diagnosis and treatment can mean the difference between a death sentence and many more years of a relatively healthy life.

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Take it from Wanggo Gallaga, youngest of the five children of critically acclaimed movie director Peque Gallaga. Born in Bacolod but bred in Manila, Wanggo is openly gay and ignored advice to practice safe sex. At 17 he was sexually active; in 2004 he counted sexual encounters, mostly unprotected, with 68 different partners.

Looking back in 2009, he wrote: “In 2007 I began getting sick a lot – usually with a fever or flu – but the incidents happened far apart so I didn’t suspect anything. In 2008 it got worse. I got sick nearly every month and suffered from more serious illnesses like ear infections, bronchitis and pneumonia. In August of that same year, while getting a chest x-ray, I asked to be tested for HIV.”

He tested positive. For all his awareness of the virus, Wanggo thought HIV and AIDS afflicted only foreigners. By the time he was diagnosed, the HIV infection was already threatening to progress into full-blown Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Naturally, fear and dismay were Wanggo’s first reactions. But he was fortunate to have supportive parents and friends as he battled complications arising from a weakened immune system, including meningitis. His parents have also helped him financially in the expenses for the potent cocktails of antiretroviral drugs that keep HIV at bay.

Wanggo, now 38, has become the new face of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines. Unlike the previous face, Sarah Jane Salazar, who died at age 25, Wanggo has a more positive message, having beaten back full-blown AIDS twice, and now living normally enough to work as a professor of screenwriting and even indulging in smoking.

“It doesn’t have to be a death sentence,” says Wanggo, who writes for this newspaper’s Young Star section.

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Today Wanggo is on maintenance medication, and looking quite healthy as he faced us last week on One News / Cignal TV’s “The Chiefs” together with Doctor Tayag.

Both of them wore red ribbon pins for the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day last Saturday. Like a politician, Tayag dances in public to draw attention to health issues, including HIV / AIDS prevention and the need for safe sex.

Tayag is now taking a lower-profile approach, including working with the Catholic Church to provide counseling to those with HIV as well as with advocacy groups promoting healthy lifestyles.

He wishes there were more individuals like Wanggo, who draw from their personal experience to assist others in overcoming fears of HIV/AIDS.

Although Wanggo has not felt discriminated against either in the workplace or within his circle of friends, he knows the stigma of HIV/AIDS is depressingly real for many other people living with the virus.

He also laments that people continue to avoid honest and open conversations on an issue that could prove critical to saving lives. People are still squeamish particularly in discussing safe sex practices.

Wanggo and Tayag were dismayed by President Duterte’s joke about not wearing condoms because it diminished sexual pleasure. The two credit Duterte for pushing for the full implementation of the Reproductive Health Act, but they stress that condom use is a critical component of family planning.

Duterte’s comment is unfortunate particularly because the sentiment is common among Filipino men and is one of the biggest hindrances to the promotion of condom use among those at risk of HIV infection.

The answer to this sentiment, according to both Wanggo and Doc Tayag, is to use condoms with water-based rather than oil-based lubricants.

And no, they both stress, you can’t get HIV from kissing. There has been persistent confusion about this because of warnings about the virus being spread through the transfer of body fluids.

Both men also dispute arguments that sex education in schools including the promotion of safe sex practices would encourage promiscuity.

Kids would do it anyway, Wanggo told us. In the digital age, so much visual stimuli can inspire people to become sexually active at an early age. In this environment, sex education can encourage responsible and healthy sexual behavior.

The sexual revolution started long before anyone had ever heard of HIV and AIDS. I was propositioned for the first time when I was 12 – by an 11-year-old boy. I laughed it off. I remember classmates in my Catholic school who became sexually active as soon as puberty set in, some of them as early as fourth grade.

The sex was largely unprotected; several of my classmates got pregnant, and all the pregnancies were terminated. The teens shared the names of reliable abortionists the way they did their favorite hairdressers.

With all the porn easily accessible in cyberspace, it’s doubtful that today’s youths have become less sexually active. Abstinence is of course the ideal for avoiding AIDS. But in the real and imperfect world, condoms and protected sex are the practical alternatives.

And getting tested early for HIV can save an infected person from a death sentence.

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THE WINNING TEAM: A friend sent word that state prosecutors, not personnel of the Public Attorney’s Office, were responsible for the successful prosecution of those cops who were convicted of murdering teenage student Kian Lloyd delos Santos. OK, folks, congratulations, and keep it up.