Gov’t warns against HIV danger in MSM sector

MSM or males who have sex with males refers to men who engage in sexual activity with other men whether they identify themselves as gays, bisexuals, or straight men.

Considered as behavioural category, this term is intended to reference of males who are at higher risk for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.

Dr. Eric Tayag, head of the health department’s National Epidemiology Center, said that “it is possible that the same sex experience is enjoyed as an alternative behaviour to opposite sex relationships either influenced by peers or by society’s permissiveness”.

Health groups are struggling with the problem of declaring an epidemic of HIV infection among a sector called MSM.

According to Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS Registry, a collection of reports from hospitals, clinics and treatment centers of laboratory-confirmed HIV tests, 210 new infections in 2005, 309 in 2006 and 342 in 2007. From January 2008 to September 2008, there were already 395 cases, up 96 percent since 2005. Dr. Eric Tayag, head of the health department’s National Epidemiology Center, said that there was nothing like this in the 21 years since the government kept an official record of HIV in 1984 when the first AIDS case was reported in the country. He also noted that for the first time in 2007, homosexual and bisexual mode of infection surpassed heterosexual transmission -- 56 percent as against 43 percent and from January to September 2008, it rose to 67 percent as against 34 percent. In the cumulative total of 1,097 infected MSM from 1984 to 2008, 49 percent were reported in the last three years alone. 108 have died when reported and slightly more MSM were reportedly already with AIDS. The most affected age group among males has also moved younger -- from 45 to 49 years old to 20 to 29.