AIDS now a global concern -- DOLE
Director Aida Estabillo of the Department of Labor and Employment VI (DOLE VI) told maritime institutions gathered in a seminar in this city that HIV/AIDS epidemic is now a global concern.
More than 40 participants from maritime institutions in Western Visayas, Dumaguete and Biliran as well as sea-based recruitment and concern government agencies attended the one –day Advocacy Program on HIV/AIDS and Migration in Maritime Institutions.
Estabillo said HIV/AIDS constitutes one of the most formidable challenges to development gains; undermining economies, threatening security and destabilizing societies.
She disclosed that the national trend for HIV transmission, which was "low and slow" before has now changed to "hiding but growing" and the possibility of an impending explosion is evident because of the unprecedented movement of people across international boarders and the thriving sex industry in the country or even within the locality.
As of 2007, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that HIV/AIDS cases in the country have now reached 3,061 with 306 cases reported in 2006 alone. In Western Visayas there are reported 55 persons living with HIV/AIDS, majority are adults of working age. Of the 55 cases, 49 are overseas workers and out of this number, 14 are seafarers.
"The fact that the disease is affecting adults of working age poses a threat not only to the health of the nation but also to productivity at all levels, specifically in maritime sector", said Estabillo.
The maritime sector, she said has been besieged by a waning number of seafarers, specifically officers, and the disease has only compounded the many problems that the manning industry is facing.
"The threat of HIV/AIDS is real. It is a threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of seafarers deployed in the different parts of the globe and the welfare of their families regardless of whether they are infected or not," added Estabillo.
Ignorance, fear and discrimination, according to Estabillo are the greatest enemies in the fight against this dreaded disease. "We want to fight the virus not the people living with it. We therefore need your help to fight this menace," she said. (PIA)