dyingYOUNG: The Journey of a Young Filipino living with HIV

FREE HIV Antibody Test

2008-12-10T10:00:00.016+08:00

December 2008: Manila Health Department FULL FORCE for World AIDS Day commemoration! (Photo courtesy of Dr. Diane Mendoza)

What: FREE HIV Antibody Test
(Voluntary Counseling and Confidential Testing)

Where: Manila Social Hygiene Clinic
(Manila Health Department)
Address: 208 Quiricada Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila

*2nd floor of the building across from the main gate of San Lazaro Hospital
*Quiricada is between LRT Bambang and LRT Tayuman Station

When: On-going, funding available until 2011. Please make an appointment by calling them.

Contact Number: 711-6942
Contact Person/s: Diane Mendoza, MD & Malou Tan, RN

Interview with DZRH

2006-07-21T01:00:00.000+08:00

http://radyonatin.com/luigi/luigi.wma

HIV Warrior: 'Heal me, stop AIDS'

2006-07-02T01:00:00.001+08:00

HIV Warrior: 'Heal me, stop AIDS'
by : Miriam V. Torrecampo
(People's Journal Tonight, July 1, 2006)

HIV warrior Luigi, 19, has reached the last stage of the grief cycle. After blind denial and rage, he has finally accepted his fate. He is now in the process of healing himself and other people living with AIDS.

Luigi is currently devoting his time in completing his Nursing studies this year. His ultimate goal is to serve people with HIV/AIDS, specially in the last stages of their lives.

“I am here to save people at risk of having the same illness that I have now. I would like to serve as an inspiration so others may be spared,” reads a message posted by Luigi on the Net.

Luigi’s perception in life took a 360-degree turn with HIV.

“Dati, wala akong iniisip kundi ang mag-abroad, kumita ng pera ’pag naging nurse ako. Now, I’m urging my co-students to value life and their patients more than the comforts and benefits the nursing profession might offer them,” the former altar boy said.

Luigi is currently supporting the Department of Education in its advocacy to include sex education in the curriculum of high school students. The proposal will highlight HIV/AIDS/STI and other major diseases.

“If there will be no serious campaign, what will happen to the youth sector? Panawagan ko po na mag-allot ng three-hour lecture sa loob ng isang linggo for HIV/AIDS/STI and other major diseases such as tuberculosis. It would be a big help to increase the awareness of our young people,” he said, adding that developed countries have already included information on major diseases in their school curriculum.

Luigi stressed that young people should be provided with informed choices because they have the right to health.

“Through sexual health, malalaman nila na ang HIV/AIDS ay hindi dapat pagtawanan. Dapat siyang bigyan ng pansin dahil wala siyang gamot and it will cost a lot kapag tinamaan ka nito… ”

The DepEd recently included lectures in school on adolescent reproductive health and reproductive rights. This was slammed by the Catholic Church, which claimed that exposing students to vulgar terms and languages is a form of child abuse.

The Catholic prelates insist that it’s the sole right and responsibility of parents to teach sex education to their children.

While Luigi is against the Catholic Chuch’s stand opposing sex education, he is one with them in saying that teaching children about sex should start at home.

“I’m not saying na mahina ang foundation ko sa family ko, pero never akong tinuruan ng mga ganyan. And I don’t remember I was taught about sex in high school,” Luigi said.

Luigi said he will continue posting messages in the chatroom as long as there is a need to convince people to practice safe sex and stop the spread of HIV.

“They don’t have to experience what I’m going through. I hope they will learn from me. Sana sa pamamagitan ng ginagawa ko ngayon ay makatulong ako sa bansang ito at sa dulo masabi ko ‘Consummatum est,’ mamamatay akong masaya,” Luigi said.

Dirty chatting

2006-07-01T01:00:00.001+08:00

Dirty chatting
(People's Journal Tonight, June 30, 2006)

A CHATTER could earn P12,000 with the use only of his fingers. All it takes is a click on the Net, a webcam, as well as raw guts to fondle oneself to delirious pleasure in front of a complete stranger. This was revealed by Luigi, a Nursing student infected with HIV by a chat-lover.

“Hindi na uso ang callboy sa kalye. Sosyal na ang negotiations ngayon, sa chatroom na,” he said.

Luigi said foreigners would visit chatrooms and engage boys in cybersex.

On this note, Luigi has come out to reveal his dark chatroom experience and warn surfers on the dangers of having sex with chat-lovers.

“I am a Filipino teenager and I’m infected with HIV. Nandito ako as living proof. Magshi-share ako kung paano ako nagkaroon ng HIV,” reads one of Luigi’s messages psoted on the Internet.

Luigi began posting AIDS information when he tested negative for HIV in December.

The HIV patient is glad that forum members appreciate his effort to disclose sensitive information about himself.

“Ang mga tao kasi gusto ng pruweba. Ang nasa isip ng mga tao a ay hindi sila tatamaan,” Luigi said.

The HIV patient said followers have been asking him where to get HIV tests.

“Gusto rin nilang malaman ang story ko,” Luigi said. He revealed that indigent youths resort to Internet sex for tuition. He also urged people practicing unsafe sex to undergo HIV tests.

Luigi said those concerned may call the Remedios AIDS hotline at........

Chatmate ‘hides’ HIV for sex

2006-06-30T01:00:00.002+08:00

Chatmate ‘hides’ HIV for sex
by : Miriam V. Torrecampo
(People's Journal Tonight, June 29, 2006)

SEX subliminally became on the agenda when Luigi set his eyes on a chatmate who was a cut above the rest.

The drop-dead-gorgeous hunk from cyberspace said he was clean, and Luigi believed him. Sex without condom followed, then HIV. “Sasabihin nu’ng ka-eyeball ko, malinis ako. Magtitiwala naman ako. Sa mga naka-sex ko before,… wala naman akong nakitang sakitin sa kanila. Hindi mo malalaman sa pisikal na anyo kung sino ang merong HIV o wala,” Luigi revealed.

Luigi said he never used condoms when having sex with any of his past five boyfriends. Trust drove him to risk HIV and refrain from asking his lovers to use protection.

The 19-year-old native from the South tested positive for HIV in April. Luigi believes he was infected by a chatmate who became his boyfriend.

“Kung maibabalik ko lang ang panahon, mas gugustuhin ko pang may baon akong condom,” he said.

Luigi was in school when he was mysteriously drained of energy.

“May naramdaman akong kakaiba while in class. Nanakit ang katawan ko. Latang-lata ako,” he recalled.

He tested negative for HIV after an Elisa test. However, Luigi wasn’t sure if he was just undergoing the so-called window period.

Amid his fears, Luigi started requiring Argo, his boyfriend at that time, to use condom. They parted ways in February.

In March, Argo sent a text message to Luigi informing that he had tested positive for HIV.

“Argo even encouraged me to undergo a similar test. He tried to appease me by saying na ‘huwag kang mag-alala, baka sa iba ko naman ito nakuha,’” Luigi said.

Luigi underwent another HIV test and received the dreaded news that changed his life forever.

“I didn’t question God about my predicament. All that I’m praying for is to give me strength and purpose. I want to know my purpose in life. Maybe with this (HIV), malaman ko ang purpose ko sa buhay,” Luigi said.

A person infected with HIV could show no symptoms from six months to 10 years after his exposure to the virus.

'Chatmate gave me HIV!'

2006-06-29T01:00:00.002+08:00

'Chatmate gave me HIV!'
by : Miriam V. Torrecampo
(People's Journal Tonight, June 28, 2006)

“SEX eyeball, anyone? Sex tayo. Send a picture. No picture, no reply.”

Luigi, 19, Nursing student, replied to this naughty invitation on the Internet chatroom and ended up having sex with his 20th chatmate. The steamy eyeball threatens to be his last as Argo -- his latest cyber boy toy -- has infected him with HIV.

Luigi says he started chatting on the Internet at 16, and has had sex with 20 chatmates.

“High school pa lang, exposed na ako sa kung saan-saang forum, discussion rooms sa Internet,” Luigi said, adding that even elementary students posed nude or masturbated while chatting.

Luigi was only 16 when he lost his virginity to an elderly chatmate who forced him into sex.

“Sa forum pa lang, may invititation na for orgies,” Luigi said.

Chatmates usually have sex eyeballs at parties, malls, movie houses, saunas and locker rooms of popular gyms in Metro Manila.

Luigi admits having joined orgies with straight and married men.

“Straight guys would prefer quick sex with homosexuals than women due to availability. Sa ngayon, ’di ka basta-basta makikipag-sex sa babae, mahirap… compare mo sa lalaki… Parang you know, for curiosity, for experience. Hindi kasi lahat ng oras available ang mga babae,” he said.

Luigi is considered the youngest among sexually-active individuals who got infected with HIV this year.

Four hundred fifty-seven of the reported AIDS cases to the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) of the Department of Health (NEC-DOH) were infected through homosexual contact. At least four of them, including Luigi, were reported only last April.

The Philippine AIDS Registry tallied a total of 2,499 HIV/AIDS cases since 1984, 67 percent of whom are between 20 and 39 years old.

Luigi’s story hopes to drum up support from stakeholders to include sex education and the deadly consequences of irresponsible sex.

Luigi began posting HIV/AIDS information when he first tested negative for HIV late last year.

“December pa lang, nagpu-post na ako ng information about HIV/AIDS/STI. Nag-increase ang awareness ko nang magpa-test ako,” he noted.

Luigi was glad to know that a number of forum members appreciate his effort to disclose such sensitive information about himself.

'My classmate has AIDS!'

2006-06-28T22:00:00.003+08:00

05/2008. Mr. Celestino Ramirez, PAFPI's VP, giving his talk to departing seafarers (sea-based Overseas Filipino Workers) during the Evaluation of PDOS Program at SEAPOWER, Sta. Mesa, Manila.

'My classmate has AIDS!'

By: MIRIAM V. TORRECAMPO
(People's Journal Tonight, June 2006)

THIS is the dreaded shriek which Marcus (real name withheld) hopes would never echo along the halls of his campus.

Every day, the senior college student lugs a dark secret to school, one that threatens to destroy him way before the disease that is slowly eating him alive -- AIDS.

Marcus, according to Celestino Ramirez, training director and vice president of the Positive Action Foundation Philippines, Incorporated (PAFPI), is part of the hidden and growing number of people afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

The Philippine AIDS Registry tallied a total of 2,499 HIV/AIDS cases since 1984, 67 percent of whom are young people in the reproductive age between 20 and 39 years old.

“We still have new cases among our young people. Nakakalungkot, kasi hindi naman lahat ng schools ay nagbibigay ng education,” Ramirez said.

Students and out-of-school youths are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection primarily because they don’t like using condoms, Ramirez said.

Four hundred fifty- seven of the reported AIDS cases reported to the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health (NEC-DOH) were infected through homosexual contact. At least four of them were reported only last April.

Ramirez described Marcus as a young “man having an alternative lifestyle.”

Marcus is a homosexual who acquired the virus from a male partner almost the same age as him.

“’Yung total expression of their individuality or sexuality also gives way to their acquiring the infection,” Ramirez said, referring to young and adult individuals’ vulnerability to sexually-transmitted infections.

“Kasi sa pagtatago, nandiyan ang lihim na pakikipagtagpo, lihim na pakikipagsiping, at iba’t ibang kaparaanan na unsafe practices. Even sa information about HIV/AIDS, hindi nila makukuha, kasi kapag magtanong ka, madya-judge ka na naman ulit (for being a homosexual),” Ramirez said.

The vulnerable ones come mostly from the provinces and far-flung areas where sexuality and HIV/AIDS are never discussed in classrooms.

“Kaya ’pag sila ay nagkaroon ng pagkakataong mag-aral sa Maynila, para silang nakawala sa isang mundo,” Ramirez said.

The PAFPI officer said they manage to visit a few schools in some sites supported by their funding agency.

Some schools, however, would not allow the PAFPI entry.

Part of the responsibility of the Department of Education under Republic Act 8504, or the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act, is to educate students on HIV/AIDS.

Unfortunately, teachers in general are not prepared to tackle such issues inside the classroom, Ramirez noted.

“Hindi mababanggit ang mga salitang ‘puki,’ ‘titi,’ moreso, ‘kan… ’ or sexual intercourse dahil sa tingin nila ang mga ito ay bastos o salitang kanto. Maski na ang salitang Ingles ay nagbibigay ng ibang pakiramdam sa mga nagtuturo o guro,” Ramirez explained.

As part of efforts to remedy the problem, the Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health, which PAFPI is popularizing under the 6th Country Program of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), provides an opportunity for stakeholders to teach young people the proper way to take care of themselves and their bodies and become responsible individuals.