Philippines AIDS Summit- Call to Action for Broad based Responses for HIV/AIDS by Leaders

An AIDS Summit held in Manila Philippines identified the following key agendas for the next three years: strengthen policy and governance; increasing investments to scale up responses; sustain capacity of resources to deliver services; intensifying scale up of coverage to reach most at risk population; evidence based programming and decision making.

The AIDS Summit was held in Manila Philippines on 12 April 2010, organized by the Philippine National AIS Council an attached agency of the Department of Health The Summit was attended by several government agencies, civil society organizations, positive communities, and donor agencies. The Summit was originally proposed by the Catholic groups challenging the government for a face to face debate on HIV prevention sans condom promotion and condom use. The call for a Summit by the Catholic group was triggered by a massive condom distribution activity led by the Department of Health during Valentine's celebration in February and in the succeeding months as part of mobilizing civil society organizations for condom promotion to populations as risk, plus the fact that there is an increasing number of HIV cases among men who have sex with men.

The Summit was a venue and opportunity for the positive community to raise urgent issues and concerns affecting their lives particularly on ARV and OI treatment. The country at the moment is heavily dependent on external sources where 67 percent of funds come from donors like Global Fund, USAID, World Ban, ADB, etc. Domestic source is only 20 percent while private sector contributes only 13 percent.

Currently, ARV is provided for free by the Global Fund to more than 800 Filipinos living with HIV. The Department of Health assured the positive community that ARVs will be provided to all those in need of the treatment until year 2012 and beyond. A concrete treatment investment plan is demanded by the leaders of positive community to make sure that the government will be true to what it had committed.

The Department of Health is now faced with more challenges posed by its partners Two decades in addressing the epidemic, and yet there is nothing different in the approaches and strategies utilized by key stakeholders .For one, policy area should be strengthened and harmonized to address HIV and IDU harm reduction activities. The current law of the country on drug use negates IDU and HIV activities. A person caught with needle and syringe may be apprehended and jailed for having in possession injecting equipment.

Most importantly, Mr Mario Taguiwalo, a consultant and expert on strategic planning and health reforms said that though the country is a low prevalence country with a low number of cases, described the epidemic as rapidly growing. He also cautioned the government and all the stakeholders that the current effort is not enough and given the kind of status and the approaches utilized , the country may have a bigger problem in the near future.

With this word from a Filipino expert, the positive community, particularly Pinoy Plus Association is ready to sit down with the government to discuss, assess, thoroughly develop meaningful approaches to stop further spread of the virus and mitigate the impact on those who are already infected and to the over all economy of the country.


Jerico Paterno
President
Pinoy Plus Association

MSMs and transgender tackle HIV-AIDS issue

HIV infections are on the rise in the Philippines, with 85 new infections registered in May 2009 alone. This is the highest reported in a month, and brings the total for 2009 (January to May) to 322. Most of these cases (88%) were men, with the 20-24 year age group reporting the most cases (29%). Fifty-seven percent of the reported cases came from the National Capital Region (NCR). All cases reported sexual contact as the mode of HIV transmission, with homosexual contact (36%) as predominant.

The other populations at risk from HIV-AIDS include female sex workers and their male clients and injecting drug users. The vulnerable populations of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), out-of-school youth, and street children are also at high risk, and require comprehensive and targeted programmes as well. In 2007, an estimated 7,490 people were living with HIV, up from the estimated 6,000 in 2002.

All the main ingredients for an epidemic are present in the country. First, HIV transmission through unprotected sex accounts for 89% of reported cases. Second, condom use among the most at-risk populations remains below the universal access target of 90%.

Given this situation, the Government of the Philippines and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched a three-year programme entitled “Promoting Leadership and Mitigating the Negative Impacts of HIV and AIDS on Human Development.” Its first project is the 1st National Conference on HIV-AIDS by Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) and Transgender Filipinos, being held July 23-24 at Greenhills Elan Hotel.

This project will define the profile of MSM and transgender Filipinos as well as their changing behaviors. It will also map and assess existing programs, and recommend advocacy strategies and cost. It will further pilot-test these strategies to scale up the national MSM response, including involvement in shaping of policy.

Renaud Meyer, the Country Director of UNDP, said: “This programme demonstrates UNDP’s commitment to contribute to the global response to combat AIDS, which is embodied in Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – to reverse and halt the spread of HIV-AIDS and other diseases. Our overall goal is to support improved human development outcomes and contribute to the attainment of the goals of the Philippines’ national AIDS response through comprehensive leadership programmes. This project – which aims to develop the capacity of MSMs and transgender Filipinos as well as their organizations – is a significant step in this direction.”

The national conference fulfills two of the five components of the UNDP programme. These are to provide strategic information and community leadership among MSM and transgender Filipinos, as well as provide knowledge, community, and advocacy to promote a deeper understanding of HIV and AIDS. The three other components of the programme are:

*Leadership for effective and sustained responses to HIV and AIDS;
*Strengthening institutional capacities and partnerships on HIV and migration; and
*Mitigating the economic and psycho-social impacts of HIV and AIDS.

For this programme, the UNDP is working closely with relevant Government agencies such as the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), TLF Sexuality, Health and Rights Educators Collective, Inc. (TLF SHARE), Health Action Information Network (HAIN), and the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC).

Two-Thirds of Young People With HIV Are Girls

YOUNG women are suffering disproportionately from HIV and AIDS according to a new report from UNICEF UK. Two-thirds of the 5.5m people aged 15-24 living with HIV are female.

The biggest difference among the sexes is in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 3.4m of young HIV sufferers, where young females are around three times more likely to have HIV than males. Girls are more at risk through poor education, having multiple sexual partners or having sex with older men. Elsewhere in the developing world, it is young men who are more likely to have HIV.

http://www.unicef. org.uk/press/ news_detail_ full_story. asp?news_ id=1310

Two in Three Young People with HIV Are Female

UNICEF UK has highlighted that insufficient attention is being given to preventing the transmission of HIV among young people under the age of 25. In a new report, 'HIV prevention with young people: The key to tackling the epidemic', the world's leading children's rights organisation called for urgent action, stressing that prevention of HIV among young people is key to tackling the global epidemic.

The report marks the launch of UNICEF UK's 'We want to live free from HIV' campaign, which aims to raise £2 million for HIV prevention and remind governments of the importance of effective HIV prevention amongst young people.

Statistics in today's report reveal that girls and young women remain far more vulnerable to HIV infection than young men, with two-thirds of the 5.5 million 15- and 24-year-olds with HIV worldwide being women. The majority of these young people still lack comprehensive and correct information about how to prevent HIV infection, or do not have the power to act on that knowledge.

"Many young people have heard of HIV and AIDS but don't know how it's spread and don't believe they are at risk," said Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF UK, Anita Tiessen. "More attention has to be given to preventing the spread of HIV by working alongside young people to make sure that prevention work is designed and delivered in a way that is 'youth friendly' and really meets their needs," she added.

In Southern Africa, home to 67% of all people with HIV, young women are two-to four-and-a-half times more likely to be infected than men of the same age. Girls are put at risk through having multiple sexual partners at the same time, having sex with older men, having sex in exchange for money or goods and being abused.

"HIV can be best avoided through a three-pronged approach - by making sure people have the right information, can access health services, and get protection when they need it," Anita Tiessen added. "Up until now, these three approaches have too often been used in isolation and not enough attention has been given to knowing how HIV spreads and to taking a more effective combined approach."

UNICEF is working globally to provide the training and skills young people need to live free from HIV, with HIV prevention programmes addressing behavioural change and social issues, as well as providing essential health services to reduce the risk to children and young people.

'We want to live free from HIV' is part of UNICEF's global campaign 'Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS', launched globally in 2005 to place children at the centre of the response to HIV and AIDS.

From WUNRN
http://www.wunrn. com
http://www.economis t.com:80/ daily/news/ displaystory. cfm?story_ id=13612889&fsrc=nwl

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.