House OKs bill to suppress HIV epidemic

MANILA, Philippines -  The House of Representatives has passed on second reading a bill mandating forceful new strategies to suppress the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic.

Bill 6751 directs the multi-sectoral Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) to draw up a fresh six-year program with definite targets to reverse the average 62-percent annual increase in new HIV cases in the country since 2010.

HIV is being spread primarily through high-risk sexual contact, predominantly male-to-male sex, and secondarily via needle sharing among illicit drug users, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

The virus causes AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS destroys the human body’s immune system and still does not have any known cure, although expensive anti-retroviral treatment could slow down the virus.

“We have very high hopes that that bill, once finally enacted with the help of the Senate, will take our fight against HIV/AIDS to the next level with highly concentrated actions,” Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association, one of bill’s authors, said yesterday.

Sen. Miriam Santiago has a counterpart measure in the Senate.

Ty said he does not see any need for President Aquino to voluntarily take an HIV test to help dispel the stigma associated with testing, as proposed by a national alliance of gay groups.

“Offhand, our showbiz celebrities might do a much better job not only at encouraging voluntary HIV-testing by young sexually active Filipinos and other at-risk groups, but also in raising public awareness of the ailment and its prevention,” he said.