There is an intensified campaign to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Last month, the Department of Health sounded the alarm that cases of the disease have been increasing in the country. ;If we don’t act early, there will be a worse scenario in a few years, warns the DOH.

We really have to put our acts together to combat HIV/AIDS. We want a healthy population. We want to assist especially our poorer countrymen who may be prone to contract the disease. We must use means that are really effective.

A study was made on the use of condom to prevent HIV/AIDS a few years ago. In 1987, Thailand had 112 cases of HIV/AIDS and the Philippines had more, with 135 cases. Thailand then launched a 100 percent condom use program. The campaign was relatively successful. In the Philippines, on the other hand, there has been a relatively low rate of condom use by the people in general. By 2003 or 16 years later, Thailand had around 750,000 cases of HIV/AIDS and the Philippines only had 1,935 cases. This may be revealing, considering even the fact that the Philippines has a 30 percent greater population than Thailand.

Condoms do not guarantee protection from HIV/AIDS as the above study shows. Condom manufacturers, who are raking in millions of dollars in the industry because many countries promote the use of condoms, even distributing them for free to people, know that their products are not 100 percent free from leakage. It has often been suggested, in fairness to consumers, to require producers to mark their products with a warning notice. Just as cigarettes are marked “Smoking is dangerous to your health” and alcoholic drinks are marked “Drink moderately,” condom products need to be marked with “Condoms do not guarantee protection from AIDS.”

How are we to combat HIV/AIDS without promoting condoms? Let us learn from the efforts of the Global HIV Prevention Working Group. It is a non-religious, non-government panel of more than 50 leading public health experts, clinicians, biomedical and behavioral researchers, advocates, and people affected by HIV/AIDS. In one of their reports, they concluded that behavior-change strategies are highly effective in preventing HIV. They noted a 50 to 90 percent decline in HIV infections in Uganda, Thailand, Australia, and Brazil where they have held behavior-change programs.

The Philippines, to combat HIV/AIDS, can intensify its behavior-change programs. The country has already started something in this line with the AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1988. One of the provisions requires people with HIV not to engage in risky sexual behavior.

Looking at the whole problem of the spread of HIV/AIDS, it boils down to the attitudes and lifestyles of people. For people who consider the sexual act as primarily for pleasure, they would look for “safe and satisfying sex” and condoms serve that purpose.In this case, promoting condoms can lead to promiscuity. On the other hand, for people who consider the sexual act as an expression of love between a man and a woman who are committed to one another and are open to the begetting of new life, then condoms are out of place. The sexual act presupposes the respect of the couple for each other, sensitive to the freedom, convictions, feelings, and needs of each one.

The whole task of combating HIV/AIDS therefore is through education. We put our energies and resources in educating people, especially the youth, on how to live their sexuality, how to be committed to love, to enter into marriage that lasts, and to build a happy family.