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Apr 16 2011
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Health, HIV and AIDS, LGBT, Sexual Health

Dear Secretary Ona: where is the money?

This June, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon will announce that HIV is on the average stabilizing or declining all over the world. That is, except in seven countries – including the Philippines.

Being part of this ‘Horror Roll’ would lead many Filipinos to ask why this is happening. We actually know the explanation. Right now, the right question to ask is this: Mister Health Secretary, where is the money?

In the same UN General Assembly this June, the Philippines will give an update on its commitments to combat HIV and AIDS. The initial commitment was done in 2001, with targets that were set for 2003, 2005, and 2010. While the epidemic was raging in many countries, the Philippines had been considered to belong to the ‘low and slow’ category. Continue reading →

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Nov 12 2010
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Health, LGBT rights, Sexual Health

Four out of five

When health experts warned that the face of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines is changing, I didn’t expect that it’ll be all too familiar. They said that it is on the rise, that it doubled from 2007 to 2009, that most of the new cases have been acquired through homosexual and bisexual contact, and that the prevalence in some cities in the country have reached epidemic proportions already.

Last month, five new cases of HIV infection were reported everyday, four of which are considered MSM, or men who have sex with other men. A decade ago, Sarah Jane Salazar, Dolzura Cortez, and a member of PinoyPlus who spoke in a safer sex training that we had – those were only faces of people living with HIV/AIDS that I knew.

Four out of five. A friend passed away due to AIDS-related complications a few weeks ago. He was about my age, and tested positive last January. He didn’t want anyone to know, so he went to a province to see an albularyo. A matter between life and death, but he chose quackery over treatment that could have extended his life.

And it was a decision that leaves you dry – you get it, you understand why he did it and what drove him to it, and yet it’s confounding. It’s maddeningly confounding. It’s like when you hear of that story about mothers who wash used condoms so they can be re-used. Or that kid in Indonesia who is happily smoking a cigarette.  Maddeningly incomprehensible, and exasperatingly explainable.

His family said that he died of pneumonia. Most of his friends were told that it was dengue that did him.

Four out of five. I’ve been giving out  the contact details of a support group for Filipinos living with HIV/AIDS – before to friends of friends, but now to close friends. HIV is not a death sentence, and I am lucky to be surrounded by close friends who share that message.

I don’t mean to sow panic, because panic combined with lack of awareness would only push more to quackery. You don’t case studies or numbers to understand that – just listen to a frothing Bishop.

But I want you to know that the trend is alarming. And the first step that we all should take is to acknowledge the writing on the wall.

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Go to TLF Share’s Facebook page to get updates on HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men in the Philippines.

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Oct 03 2009
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Health

Breastmilk vs infant formula during calamities

Is it ok to include infant milk formula in your relief packs?

The issue sparked a debate in Twitterworld a few days ago after the Department of Health refused to accept infant formula donations from pharmaceutical companies. The law actually prohibits any government agency from promoting milk substitutes for infants, thus it cannot accept the donation.

In light of the Ondoy disaster, some relief aid groups feel that this is inappropriate. Even though that I see myself as a breastfeeding advocate (yeah, raise your eyebrows, but I am a breastfeeding advocate), I can understand where this frustration is coming from.

So what I did was ask for clarifications. Iona Jalijali, one of our legislative staffers and a breastfeeding supermom, explained that in disaster-stricken areas where clean water is inaccessible, infant formula increases the risk of exposure to diseases. Only when there are very young babies (6 months and less) and there are no sources of breastmilk or breastfeeding mothers should infant formula be used as the last resort PROVIDED that the distributed infant formula is accompanied by clean water and other supplies for safe preparation (clean bottles, etc.)

The ideal scenario is to make it easy for mothers in evacuation centers to breastfeed their children. A room may be designated for nursing mothers, and their own babies should be prioritized. If possible, after feeding their babies, they can wetnurse for other babies or express their breastmilk for other infants.

Infant formula is perhaps the most convenient way to feed infants in evacuation sites or disaster-stricken communities. But I agree with breastfeeding advocates: it is certainly not the safest.

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Nov 20 2008
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Health, LGBT

Significant other

From Section 10 it became Section 2.7. And so finally that morning, after a long delay, we found ourselves right in the middle of the Bureaucracy, going over a Memorandum of Agreement (“henceforth referred to as MOA”), some preambulatory clauses, pertinent provisions, and a litany of technical terms.

I was with E. and N., leaders of an organization of Filipinos with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) that has been providing support to positive Pinoys. They were about to lose their office this year due to lack of funding, and since 2006 they’ve been trying to get the Department of Health to provide a little office space in one of its facilities for free. Their appeal went through a complete bureaucratic life cycle – it was approved in principle, was referred to several public health agencies and facilities, was suddenly denied, and was being re-considered. When Akbayan heard of the case, we brought it up in a congressional hearing, finally compelling the Department of Health to see if there’s a spare room that the organization could use. It was decided that a hospital in Manila would host the organization for the meantime. Continue reading →

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