No cases. Where did it go?

Many were happy that by the year 2000, the dreaded 100,000 HIV cases did not happen. Perhaps the Y2K scare also eclipsed every other issue that emerged around that time.

A year later after the AIDS law was passed.

Another 5 years passed.

Presidents Estrada and Arroyo administrations later… still, the number of HIV cases were low.

Was the AIDS law so magnificent that we were successful in preventing new HIV infections? Or was it that majority of male Filipinos were circumcised? Or the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands is a natural deterrent for HIV to cross one island to another? Or did we simply miss the cases, because we did not know where to find them?

On my first year in HIV work, in 2006, I was happy monitoring the 100% Condom Use Program (100% CUP) in around 10 sites around the country. The CUP was an international best practice initiated by Thailand which brought down HIV and STI infections within months of implementation among entertainment establishments in Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

With the acceptability and simplicity of CUP in these cities, the Philippine government wanted to replicate it in many parts of the country. However, many of our cities then had a hard time understanding why they have to have the CUP.

I recall one visit in one of the cities in the Visayas. The city councilor who was the chair of the city’s legislative committee on health asked us particularly the DOH “Since you have the AIDS registry, why don’t you just tell us the names and addresses of the HIV victims in our city? We need to find them so that we will know how to avoid them. We can warn others. We can stop these infections”. It was a situation reflective of the situation in other cities in the country at that time.

For me, it was not merely ignorance, but a real, genuine reaction to our proposed solutions on an imagined epidemic. They cannot feel the presence of HIV. They cannot see the epidemic. They wanted real cases seen in their cities. They wanted a face of the epidemic, the Dolzura or Sarah Jane of their communities.

Yes, at that time in 2006, as I have narrated above, a mere 300 HIV cases were reported in the registry, and majority were seen from the clinics of Metro Manila.

The chance of a remote city having a real face with HIV was… also remote.

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HIV Around me  |  AIDS Work  |  Did we forsesee this?  |  Where did we fail?  |  The legendary AIDS Law  |  No Cases. Where did it go?  |  Confused  |  Wildfire  |  We will bounce back  |  Papang, thank you, I know my HIV status 

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