The Department of Health (DOH) reported that the number of those aged from 15-25 years old who are getting infected with HIV rose by 500%, calling for HIV to be made a National Public Health Emergency. Various sectors joined the bandwagon to comment on the DOH’s extremely overdue observation… including those from NGOs that fail to curb the problem no matter their bloated budgets.
Miss Universe 2015 Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach gave a commentary; and this is the take of Sass Rolando Sasot on this.
I have just watched a very creepy Pia Wurtzbach addressing the 500% uptick in the cases of HIV among the youth. Why is it creepy? She is smiling all the time and offers a “silver lining” approach to the situation, declaring that this surge of infections is a reflection of people wanting to be tested.
There’s some truth to this: if people get more tested, we will see more confirmed infections, which will be reflected on the data. Without being tested, a low level of infection may mask a silent epidemic.
However, my problem with her approach is she doesn’t address why people get infected at all. She doesn’t encourage people to learn how to set personal boundaries, to practice responsible sexual engagement. STD’s like HIV are not caught like flu, where personal choice is not a great factor (i.e. you can get infected by flu by simply being in the same elevator as someone who has it).
With STD’s, personal decision matter a lot: You chose to have sex irresponsibly, hence you caught it.
The problem with the current HIV approach is the overmedicalization of sexual behavior. For example, PrEP, which is a medicine you take in order to prevent you from getting infected, is marketed widely. The idea is: If you have sex, even without protection, the chances of getting the virus is rare. Well and good.
My problem with this is akin to the overmedicalization of depression, where doctors quickly prescribe anti-depressants, which in turn just make the person dependent on medication. The medicine does help, but does it cure or does it just make depression stronger?
HIV, like any virus, is a COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM. As such, it will eventually learn to outsmart whatever medicine. In fact, there are breakthrough infections even with people taking PreP, it is RARE, but it is an evidence that the virus is “learning” how to outsmart it. It is rare, for now, but of course you will never know whether you are the host within which the virus has learned to adapt to PreP.
You cannot address a disease where personal choice is a huge factor by simply telling them to get tested. You have to address the structure of personal choice itself. If I am a person who cannot stop myself from the urge of banging every Tom, Dick, and Harry, I have a deeper problem to resolve.
And taking “prevention” from acquiring the virus only addresses a surface problem, the tip of the iceberg emerging from a deeper structure: SO even if you cull the tip, a new tip will just re-emerge because the deeper structure from which it arises is still there: Personal irresponsibility, freedom without constraint.
