The AIDS Epidemic – why blame the Church?

The penchant of anti-Church writers to put blame to the Catholic church the ills in society, particularly the recent editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer blaming the Catholic church for the AIDS epidemic in our country, is disturbing. I recently found the article of Sr. Verzosa dealing with the said editorial. Here she published the full text of Fr. James McTavish in response to the PDI editorial. I also included below the editorial for easier reference.--jsalvador

The AIDS Epidemic – why blame the Church?

Sr. Mary Pilar Verzosa, RGS

Lovelife

BEING a member of PHILCHAN (Philippine Catholic HIV AIDS Network), I am always on the lookout for any publications on the topic dealing with HIV-AIDS.  This group was started over a year ago with Bishop Broderick Pabillo as chairman because this advocacy is part of some NASSA projects. I was quite peeved then when I came across the Editorial of Phil. Daily Inquirer last July 8, 2012 titled “Overlooked Epidemic” because once again, the bias of some writers against the Catholic Church was evident. I alerted members and indeed, quite a few responded immediately. I would like to quote from this letter made by Fr. James McTavish, a physician and moral theologian, to make sure that it will reach many people since, in our experience,  we are never sure if a letter we send to a newspaper will ever get published.

Here is his letter in full:

“The recent PDI editorial “Overlooked Epidemic,” draws attention to the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines. It correctly points out that the country needs to invest more funds and mobilize more resources to combat the growing epidemic. Unfortunately however it overlooks some vital facts. Teresita Marie Bagasao, who heads the Manila office of the United Nations Program on HIV-AIDS (UNAids), is quoted as saying “The country also needs to focus on where the disease is.” To correctly address any epidemic it is vital to focus on the most at risk groups and where the disease actually is. Surprisingly the editorial failed to do just that—to focus on where the disease is and those most at risk. If we do not focus we end up just shooting in the dark. The Church also becomes a victim of unjust and haphazard firing with the criticism that she “has not been of much help, with its continued opposition to the use of condoms.” Let us analyze this statement to see if it has a basis or whether vital facts have been overlooked.

The Church and other faith-based organizations are actually responsible for the majority of HIV and AIDS care worldwide. In the Philippines the Catholic Bishops have produced two insightful pastoral letters the most recent being “Who is my neighbor?” published in July 2011. The Church is at the frontline of the battle against AIDS, helping and supported by many NGO’s alongside government efforts to combat this deadly disease. It may thus be unfair and even a sign of ignorance or prejudice to claim that she has not been of much help.

How about the Church’s opposition to condoms? Well, she does not support the widespread distribution of condoms because there is no evidence that this strategy is effective at a population wide level. None other than Edward Green, the former Director of the prestigious AIDS Prevention Research Project at Harvard University wrote that scientific studies in “the Lancet, Science and BMJ (British Medical Journal) have confirmed that condoms have not worked as a primary intervention in the population-wide epidemics of Africa.” This can be explained by inconsistent condom use and by the phenomenon of “risk compensation” whereby an individual who thinks he is protected actually takes more risks as explained by Fr Michael Czerny, S.J., Director of the African Jesuit AIDS network. He noted that “greater availability and use of condoms is consistently associated with higher (not lower) HIV infection rates, perhaps because when one uses a risk reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) because people take greater chances than they would without the technology” (Thinking Faith, Online Journal of the British Jesuits, March 25, 2009).

The “Overlooked Epidemic” editorial surprisingly overlooks the group most at risk of HIV, the so called MSM group, men who have sex with other men. The MSM group are responsible for around 80% of the new cases of HIV. It is unclear if this glaring omission is due to insufficient research and ignorance or a failure to present the medical data clearly from a misplaced political correctness. If we want to target the epidemic we need to target the most at risk groups otherwise we are in danger of overlooking their real needs. The USAID report from 2001 clearly stated that “the Church is not a hindrance to the high risk groups which is where the rise in HIV is happening. The prevailing mode of transmission of HIV is men having sex with men. Those men probably do not have hesitations about condoms because of their Catholic faith.” The evidence shows that it would be thus ludicrous and rather short sighted to blame the spread of HIV in the MSM group on the Church seeing as this group does not even adhere to her teaching in this area. The Catholic Church correctly teaches that an active homosexual lifestyle is a dangerous one and the medical and scientific data supports this stance.

Those who blandly promote condom use as a magic panacea for the MSM group are doing our brothers a great disservice and an injustice. Instead we should be working to encourage a chaste lifestyle especially in the MSM group, and educate those involved in these risky and illicit sexual activities that they are putting their physical and moral well-being and that of many others at grave risk. In this regard, the voice of the Church should be listened to and not be simply disregarded or overlooked.

This is the best way to truly love our neighbours, to tend to them, like the Good Samaritan who did not overlook the suffering and predicament of his wounded brother, but instead lent himself wholeheartedly in a mission and ministry of compassionate care and healing. May Jesus, our Good Samaritan, always guide us in our care for those most in need and give us strength and courage never to overlook the truth. 

(Fr James McTavish, FMVD, MD, FRCSEd, MA (Bioethics), STL)

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Editorial

Overlooked epidemic

Philippine Daily Inquirer

10:05 pm | Saturday, July 7th, 2012

Among the biggest news in medicine at present is the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first ever over-the-counter kit with which Americans can test themselves for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the dreaded disease AIDS. That’s how advanced the US fight against HIV has come, now allowing Americans to use a mouth swab to test their saliva and find out in 20 short minutes whether or not they have acquired HIV. The test kit, called OraQuick, is an important new step in America’s battle to prevent new HIV infections. It is said to be 99-percent accurate.

That development is a galaxy away from the situation in the Philippines, where HIV seems to have become an overlooked epidemic. When AIDS was first discovered in the 1980s, Filipinos panicked, believing, for example, that one could acquire the virus simply by sitting on a toilet seat previously used by an HIV-positive person. The next decades appear to have done little to change Filipinos’ ideas about HIV and AIDS. The 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey documented that only one out of five Filipino women had “comprehensive knowledge” of HIV. The survey also showed that two out of three Filipino women still did not know that HIV could not be acquired by sharing food with an HIV-positive individual or through mosquito bites.

There has been an alarming rise in the number of HIV-infected Filipinos, and the Philippines has fallen farther behind its neighbors in the struggle against HIV. Teresita Marie Bagasao, who heads the Manila office of the United Nations Program on HIV-AIDS (UNAids), said early this year that the country had failed in preventing the spread of HIV. “While the number of HIV infections in the Philippines is still relatively low, the rate of increase in the number of cases is a cause for concern,” she said.

Bagasao went on to cite the 2010 Global AIDS report, which said that “the Philippines is still one of only seven countries in the world [and two countries in Asia that] have recorded a sharp increase in the number of HIV cases.” While other countries in Asia have reported the number of their HIV cases as either stabilized or decreased, the Philippines and Bangladesh are reporting increases. According to UNAids, the Philippines has seen a 50-percent increase in new HIV infections over the last 10 years.

In 2001, there were only an estimated 600 HIV cases in the Philippines. But last year, the Department of Health was reported monitoring a stunning 4,600 new HIV cases. Also, 3,700 Filipinos have died of AIDS-related causes since 1984, with some 500 succumbing in 2010 alone. As many as 9,669 HIV cases have been recorded since 1984, and the number continues to climb. “If current efforts remain at the same level, there will be 30,000 to 45,000 cases of HIV in the country by 2015,” Bagasao said.

Despite Republic Act 8504, also known as the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998, more and more Filipinos are being infected, mostly because of ignorance. Government efforts to educate the public on the matter have been clearly inadequate, leaving vulnerable many Filipinos at risk of HIV infection. HIV is spread through transfusion of contaminated blood, needle-sharing by drug users, and an exchange of body fluids, which is why risky sexual behavior and unprotected sex are particularly dangerous. (The Church has not been of much help, with its continued opposition to the use of condoms.)

UNAids has observed that the Philippines is not spending enough money to solve the problem. It said the country needed to increase four-fold the current allocation of P1.76 billion. “With decreasing external resources, the country needs to mobilize domestic resources to get ahead of the epidemic,” Bagasao said. “The country also needs to focus on where the disease is, as well as do things faster, smarter and better, based on evidence of what works.”

Furthermore, the Philippines is slipping in its attempt to meet its Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of AIDS by 2015. It is facing the possibility of an AIDS apocalypse, such as the one that doomed Africa, because of plain indifference and misinformation. It is urgent that the government make the prevention of the spread of HIV a clear priority before it is too late. Bagasao warned: “While other countries managed to stabilize their epidemics, the Philippines still needs to muster the political will to face the challenge posed by this growing epidemic.”