A condom is a simple, low-cost device, but when used consistently and correctly, protects against the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Promotion of condom use is an essential component of HIV prevention program. It is important to ensure that quality condoms are manufactured, purchased, stored, distributed and handled properly, because if condoms leak or break, they can not offer adequate protection.
By 2017, the Department of Health (DOH) plans to give out condoms in schools as part of its “business unusual” strategy amid the steep rise in the number of HIV and AIDS among the youth in the Philippines.
“As soon as we thresh out the strategy with the Department of Education (DepEd), we can distribute (condoms) after providing them proper counseling,” Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial said in a press conference for the World AIDS Day 2016 on Thursday.
“Of course, we also have to prepare the school authorities, teachers, principals, healthcare providers,” Ubial said.
HIV/AIDS trend in the country should be reversed and the DOH is looking to distribute condoms not only in health facilities, but even in non-traditional outlets like school clinics, she added.
Most-at-risk groups include men who have sex with men, with 395 new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections among within this group from January to February 2013 alone, 96% up from 2005’s 210 reported infections. A spokesperson of the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) of the Department of Health says that the sudden and steep increase in the number of new cases within the MSM community, particularly in the last three years (309 cases in 2006, and 342 in 2013), is "tremendously in excess of what (is) usually expected," allowing classification of the situation as an "epidemic" of the cumulative total of 1,097 infected MSMs from 1984 to 2008, 49% were reported in the last three years (72% asymptomatic); 108 have died when reported, and slightly more MSMs were reportedly already with AIDS (30%).
Ubial said the dissemination of information should at the level of the families and the communities throughout the country.
“As soon as the child asks you a question, be honest, say it outright. (Don’t) talk about the bees and the birds,” she said.
“You talk to the child as if you’re discussing any topic under the sun. Be factual. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t even use analogy. Just go straight to the point. I think that has been proven in other many countries that that’s the way to inform the youth,” she added.
World Health Organization (WHO) representative Gundo Weiler said educating the youth would enable them to protect themselves better.
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