'HIV threat' increases with 

needle-sharing drug-users

TAGBILARAN CITY, December 17 (PIA)--The threat of getting the dreaded human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) gets even more real as health authorities bared that sharing contaminated needles have helped spread the virus in the Visayas.

About 90% of the new monitored cases in Central Visayas come from sharing of contaminated needles, according to nurse Nickson Epe of the Provincial Health Office.

And just as sharing needles can happen to drug users who take turns in injecting substances, the threat jumps closer to Boholanos as the supply for sniffed addictive substances become scarcer.

In its reports, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said the recent crackdown against methampithamine hydrochloride or locally known as shabu has become increasingly difficult that drug users are now into adulterated shabu also called Titanic, or the becoming popular injectables.

As to the injectables, PDEA through agent Chona Egam said the use of Nubain or Nalbuphine sometimes also called Shoot has become increasingly popular.

With this, drug users who share needles are in the direct threat of HIV, which can be transmitted through blood transfusion and even the sharing of needles.

The most common mode of transmission however is through sexual contact with persons living with HIV, according to nurse Mila Israel.

Moreover, for users who may have to take drugs with others in a room, the possibility of sexual orgies become apparent and unprotected sex rates high among the modes of transmission.

According to health officials, Central Visayas alone has averaged 90 cases of HIV a month.

Around 151 Boholanos have been tested positive for HIV and some 23 more have been positively identified to have Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the advanced state of HIV which is always fatal.

The virus, or HIV is a kind of virus that mimics the body’s “soldiers cells” that acts as its defense forces, simplifies simplified nurse at the Provincial Health Office (PHO) Milagros Israel.

Israel who also sits as provincial HIV AIDS coordinator added that by so doing, the body’s soldier cells can no longer distinguish which are foreign viruses.

The virus then attacks the body’s immune system and weakens people's defense systems against infections.

As the virus destroys and impairs the function of immune cells, infected individuals gradually become immune-deficient, that is; they become susceptible to a wide range of infections, and other diseases that people with healthy immune systems can fight off.

The most advanced stage of HIV infection is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which can take from 2 to 15 years to develop, according to World Health Organization (WHO). (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

Root carving artist Gabriel Café shares the beginnings of his passion during the opening of Talimbaw Café, the first permanent art gallery in Bohol. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)