17 years with AIDS and living normally

LAST Saturday, December 1, was World AIDS Day. Established in 1988 by the World Health Organization (WHO), World AIDS Day provides governments, national AIDS programs, organizations, and individuals with an opportunity to raise awareness and focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic. WHO estimates the number of persons living with HIV worldwide in 2007 at 33.2 million, with 2.1 million dying of AIDS.

Below is a contribution by Cagayan de Oro-based journalist Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, who writes that while AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) has become a worldwide buzzword, those who suffer from the disease receive very little government support, from the time they are diagnosed. Rodriguez was a participant in the recent PCIJ training on “Reporting on the Millennium Development Goals” held in Davao City.

17 years with AIDS and living normally
by Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez

Cagayan de Oro City — In 1990, Gabby (not his real name) decided to donate blood for a friend who needed a transfusion. He was then working in a bar in Manila and was robust and healthy. While in the hospital laboratory waiting for the doctor to get his blood, he noticed the medical staff arguing. After a few minutes, one of them called him inside to tell him he could not donate blood because it was “dirty.” That was all what Gabby was told and he left the hospital baffled but soon forgot about it.

Now 41, Gabby has long understood that what that medical staff in the hospital was talking about was AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome. He had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as early as that time but knew about it and sought professional help only when his first wife died of the disease. Who else could he blame but the hospital staff who merely told him his blood was dirty?

For 17 years, Gabby has been living with AIDS. He married his first wife years before he knew he had AIDS. She had been sickly and soon had to be taken to a Manila hospital for treatment. In 1995, doctors diagnosed that his wife was HIV/AIDS-positive. That was when they discovered that Gabby had transmitted the disease to her. She soon died and, for a time, Gabby kept to himself and lost hope. After some time, he met other AIDS victims Sarah Jane Salazar and Dolzura Cortez, both now deceased, and mustered his courage to come out in the open.

Today, Gabby has become an active resource speaker during symposiums and testimonials organized by the non-government group Alliance against AIDS in Mindanao (Alagad-Mindanao). For the 19th World AIDS Day celebration, Gabby spoke in a series of symposiums in the city before the youth, health workers, academe and the media on HIV/AIDS.

“I think the best person to speak about AIDS is a person who has been living with the disease for years. I nearly died twice because of AIDS but I survived, maybe because I need to do this mission of spreading correct information and giving inspiration to other PWAs (persons with AIDS) to come out,” Gabby, a native of Bukidnon, says in Cebuano.

According to the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health, there are now a total of 2,965 reported cases of HIV/AIDS. Of this, 40 per cent, or 307, were already dead at the time of the report due to AIDS related complications.

The UNAIDS, a United Nations program against HIV/AIDS, reports otherwise. In its 2006 report on Global AIDS epidemic, it estimates that 12,000 Filipinos are living with HIV/AIDS. Of this, an estimated 3,400 women aged 15-49 have the virus.

Mike Mahinay, director of Alagad-Mindanao, believes that there are more cases of AIDS in the country that remain unaccounted for. “Many of the cases we handled are OFWs who acquired the disease abroad. How many OFWs do we have who come in and out of the country? There are no clear measures in monitoring (if they have AIDS),” he says.

“There are also people who suspect they have AIDS but refuse to come out and get proper medical treatment because they fear the stigma,” adds Mahinay.

Dr. Jaime Bernadas of DOH Region 10 admits that even though there is an existing law on HIV/AIDS prevention, it is not enough to monitor the cases. “The thrust of the DOH is education, information, care and support. Still, whatever we do, it still depends upon the patient to come out or not. What we do is only voluntary checking, we cannot force anyone to have their blood checked,” says Bernadas.

Dr. Joselito Retuya of the city social hygiene clinic says that patients who come to them are mostly referred by non-government agencies involved with OFWs. “They get counseling and risk assessment. We check the sexual history which is important because once we learn that he or she had risky sexual behavior, the more likely that he or she will contract sexually transmitted diseases or AIDS,” he says.

Gabby is more than glad that at present, greater awareness and better support mechanisms are now in place for HIV/AIDS victims. He observes that better care for people like him started only in 2003. “Grabe ang naranasan ko sa San Lazaro. Yung mga staff dun, itutulak lang nila ang food tray sa ilalim ng pinto at diring-diri sila sa amin. Parang hinihintay na lang namin na mamatay kami (My experience in San Lazaro was horrible. They would just slip the food tray under the door, they disdain us. We were just waiting for our deaths),” recounts Gabby on his experience in his years of stay in San Lazaro hospital, then the only hospital accommodating AIDS patients.

Gabby is still staying in San Lazaro, together with his third wife who is also a PWA and their 15-month old baby. He is a cyclist, he says, and he struggles to live a normal, healthy life. This he could do thanks to anti-retroviral drugs that had been made available four years ago.

This is another reason why Gabby has been actively publicizing his case. “Other people who think they have AIDS should come out now so they will get proper treatment. They don’t have to die of AIDS. There are drugs that help,” says Gabby who is assisted by UNAIDS to avail of the expensive medicines.