<p>Kahel Jay Sta. Maria was no love guru, but on that day, he needed to be one. He had to intervene between two 16-year-old Filipino boys whose relationship had gone awry in order to literally save one of them.</p><p>One of the boys tested positive for HIV. When he and his boyfriend broke up, he stopped taking his medicine and started destroying his tablets and pills instead. Kahel, a "life coach" at LoveYourself clinic, an HIV testing and treatment hub in Manila, had to step in. The boy's parents didn't know that he had HIV—31-year-old Kahel was the only adult there to guide as he tried to fight the virus. </p><p>"I did not order him or force him to take his medicine. Instead, I tried to understand first why he's doing it, why he's crushing his meds. That was the only way I was able to get to him," he said.</p><p>Kahel often serves as the guardian, friend and the counselor of people living with HIV, or otherwise known as PLHIV. He's worked with about 1000 people fighting HIV, many of them are minors who cannot tell their parents about their condition. Kahel would first provide pre-counseling to minors to ease their fears about taking an HIV test. If they fail to obtain their parents' required approval for the test, social workers will give them the consent. If they test positive, Kahel will help them access treatment and make sure that they stay with it, love problems be damned.</p><h2> Lack Of Access Leading To An Epidemic</h2><p>Social workers and life coaches like Kahel fill an important gap in addressing the growing rate of HIV prevalence in the Philippines, since the law forbids people under 18 years old from getting themselves tested unless they have written consent from their parents. The law is leading to deaths and lack of proper treatment, according to health advocates.</p><div class="article__media"><picture class="article__image"><source media="(max-width: 25em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=400:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=600:* 2x"><source media="(max-width: 40.625em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=650:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=975:* 2x"><source media="(max-width: 53.125em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=850:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=1275:* 2x"><source media="(max-width: 65.625em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=1050:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=1575:* 2x"><source media="(min-width: 65.625em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=1050:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg?resize=1575:* 2x"><img src="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1504519958022-Ilustrasi-Love-Yourself-Clinic.jpeg" alt=""></picture><div class="article__image-caption">Illustration by Diedra Cavina</div></div><p>"I hope the law can be revised because it makes it harder to treat minors with HIV. At the age of 14 to 16, they already have experience with sex. From that age, 16, there's already a two-year gap before they learn their status. By that time they get tested at 18, their body has already experienced a big difference—their health could have already deteriorated," Kahel said.</p><p>The Philippines has the fastest-growing rate of HIV cases in Asia Pacific, with a 140 percent jump in the number of new infections. In 2016, there were 10,500 Filipinos who tested positive for HIV, a big leap from the 4,300 cases of infection in 2010. And since 2015, 30 percent of the newly-recorded cases involved Filipinos aged between 15 and 24. A report from July this year expects this rate to go higher at the end of 2017. The National Youth Commission has declared the phenomenon as a "youth epidemic" in 2016 as out of the 29 Filipinos who get infected daily, 19 of them are 15 to 24 years old. <br><br>But in 2015, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago moved to amend the law, citing that HIV testing in nearby countries is way more accessible for young people. In nearby Laos, 14 year olds are able to test themselves for HIV without parental consent. The new bill would allow minors as young as 15 years old to take an HIV test without consent if they can prove that they have no contact with their parents or guardians or are pregnant.<br><br> In January, Senator Risa Hontiveros filed a bill to remove any restrictions from minors aged between 15 to 17 to take an HIV test. Parental consent would only be required for those younger than 15 or who are mentally incapacitated. If they have no parents or guardians, consent can be extended by licensed social workers.<br><br> The Department of Health (DOH) has supported these proposed amendments since 2015. However, the bills calling for the scrapping of parental consent for minors have yet to gain traction. The DOH has also pushed for "proxy consent," where social workers, peer counselors and even teachers can give minors permission to taken an HIV test. This is usually done during community-based screening.<br><br> "Our hands are tied because of the law," DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said. "We have doctors, however, who are looking for ways to convince parents to let their children take the test."</p> <h2>HIV testing on the front lines</h2><p>In order to reach more minors, Pinoy Plus, a treatment and support group for people living with HIV, has taken proxy consent and community-based screening to another level.</p> <p>"We tried to work with 'clans' or groups formed by teenagers," said Owie Franco, president of Pinoy Plus. </p> <p>In July, Pinoy Plus rented a whole bar for a clan in Cubao, a red light district in Quezon City for a meetup. Inside the bar, aside from the usual kegs of beer and flashy lights, was a DOH representative who spoke about HIV, the importance of safe sex and taking an HIV test. Pinoy Plus also set up booths where minors can take the test via proxy consent from social workers. </p> <p>Franco said they plan to increase HIV testing among minors and spread safe sex education one clan at a time.</p> <p>Pinoy Plus has worked with dating apps for gay men such as Grindr, Hornet and Blued to undo the stigma around HIV testing by talking to minors in the apps and inviting them for a screening. "There are some who don't want to go to social hygiene clinics to take the test because they're scared, there's a stigma against those who take the test—even if they tested negative, people will think they're already HIV positive just because they're in a clinic," said Franco. </p><p class="article__pull-quote">"Minors now engage in risky behavior for the simplest of reasons. There was a 16-year-old boy who engaged in paid sex so he can have money to play Defense of Ancients, a computer game."</p> <p>The counselors at LoveYourself clinic has also used the same dating apps to spread HIV testing invites, a timely innovation as young Filipinos use apps and social media to meet other people not only for dating but also for casual sex. <br><br> "Technology has made it easier for minors to engage in sexual activities—at the age of 14, 15, they already start to explore. When you open apps, even if they have age requirements, you can easily lie and join them," Kahel said. <br></p><h2>Changing the law for minors</h2><p>Even though proxy consent has helped many Filipino youth, health advocates still want a law that lowers barriers for HIV testing for minors and makes proxy consent a legal mechanism for enabling testing.</p> <p>"We need a law because without it, we can be stopped anytime. [As] social workers, we can be barred from helping minors take the test and receive treatment," Kahel said. </p> <p>While a proposed bill in the Senate moves at a slow pace, an administrative order is being pushed by the DOH. At the same time, the Philippine National Aids Council, an advisory body to the executive, has asked President Rodrigo Duterte to issue an <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/177654-treat-minors-seeking-hiv-tests-medical-emergencies" target="_blank">executive order</a> allowing testing for minors. </p> <p>It doesn't just stop there. Once minors are allowed to take the HIV test, the government must also refine its health packages and services in order to make treatment more affordable and accessible to young people living with HIV. Currently, those under 18 years old cannot be a member of Philhealth or Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. This deprives minors with HIV of the Outpatient HIV/AIDS Treatment Package, which include anti-retroviral treatment that suppresses the growth of the virus, laboratory exams and a PHP30.000 ($587 USD) coverage for expenses incurred by accessing treatment hubs and medicine. </p> <p>"There's a suggestion that the package should be changed to accommodate minors. For one, if your guardian or parent is a Philhealth member, you must be allowed to use Philhealth to access hospitals," Franco said. </p><p>Franco said it's important for both minors and parents who are aware of the necessity of HIV testing and prevention.</p><p>"Minors now engage in risky behavior for the simplest of reasons. There was a 16-year-old boy who engaged in paid sex so he can have money to play Defense, a computer game. He had himself tested and it's a good thing his mother allowed him to take the HIV test," he said. "But what about other minors? If they don't know their status, they could still go on with their risky behavior. I think that ignorance is the one driving force behind the youth epidemic."</p>

vice

Philippines

What's Behind the Philippines' Youth HIV Epidemic?

Manila

age restriction

HIV in the Philippines

HIV stigma

hiv/aids

<p>The message is simple but quite radical: It’s possible for people living with HIV to have a healthy and fulfilling sex life.</p> <p>That’s the core of a campaign tackling HIV stigma in Vietnam—a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control, the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam (HAIVN), and the creative agency The Lab Saigon.</p> <p>Their collaboration brought us two one-minute films that are almost identical—one featuring a straight couple and the other a gay couple. The camera starts recording outside someone's apartment and the viewer quickly finds themselves inside a vibrant but cramped home where a couple is kissing, licking, and undressing each other in bed. Then one of them turns to look directly into the camera and says, “I’m positive. He will never be.”</p> <p>HIV infection rates peaked in Vietnam in the 2000s, and although growth rates have stabilized since, the stigma still hasn’t really gone away. And, partly, this was sadly by design. HIV rates declined in Vietnam in a large part because of a very successful awareness campaign that instilled fear in people, explained Tuan Le, a co-director and founder of The Lab Saigon. </p><p>But while messaging like this do reduce the rate of new infections, they also cement a culture of stigmatizing people who are already HIV-positive.</p><div data-iframely-id="kKQVXyu" data-embedded-url="https://vimeo.com/305176287" class="article__embed article__embed--iframely"><div style="left:0;width:100%;height:0;position:relative;padding-bottom:42.8119%;" data-iframely-smart-iframe="true"><iframe data-img="" data-iframely-url="//oembed.vice.com/kKQVXyu?playerjs=1" style="border:0;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" data-iframely-smart-iframe="true" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div> <p>We're pretty far from the bad days of HIV being a death sentence, and today, <a href="https://vietnamnews.vn/society/424808/vn-buys-anti-retroviral-drugs-at-lower-prices.html#qpEbbefFwE6XguYr.97" target="_blank">affordable antiretroviral medication</a> can reduce someone's viral load to an undetectable level. At that point, HIV is non-transmissible through intercourse. These advancements in science and medicine have changed lives all over the world, but while the medication is covered by Vietnam's health care system, it also isn't widely available. </p><p>That's where these films come in. With their raw and romantic aesthetics (Maika Elan, whose <a href="http://maikaelan.com/photos/the-pink-choice.html" target="_blank">award-winning photo series</a> on Vietnam's gay and lesbian couple inspired the look of this campaign, is another collaborator), the films set a new, positive narrative in the country. VICE spoke with Tuan Le and Anh Phi Cako, the co-creative directors of the project to learn more:<br></p> <p><b> VICE: What made you want to tackle HIV in this really intimate way, as in, literally interrogating a couple in the middle of sex?<br></b>Tuan Le: We wanted to not glamorize it or stigmatize it. We just want to borrow a moment of these people’s lives. They’re living their lives, just the way they always have, because of this treatment, and we wanted to come in and literally just ask them for two, three seconds to help us deliver the message. And then we backed out. And that’s kind of the whole approach, we’re not trying to interrupt their lives.</p> <p><b> So the people in the films are actual people living with HIV?<br></b>Le: No. We found people with HIV who are couples but—and this speaks to the stigma—they didn’t want their families to know. So we had to have people recreate their lives.</p> <p>Cako: In terms of these films, we wanted to make it as pure and as raw as possible by doing one-shot films. So we come in and we see their apartments, their neighbors. We shot in these old apartment buildings.</p><div data-iframely-id="K6l1uCg" data-embedded-url="https://vimeo.com/305174857" class="article__embed article__embed--iframely"><div style="left:0;width:100%;height:0;position:relative;padding-bottom:42.8119%;" data-iframely-smart-iframe="true"><iframe data-img="" data-iframely-url="//oembed.vice.com/K6l1uCg?playerjs=1" style="border:0;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" data-iframely-smart-iframe="true" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div> <p><b>The films themselves are really short.<br></b>They're for three different venues, for social media, for events—so they have a lot of outreach events, medical events and things like that—and for TV, it’s on an unlimited run but we’re still waiting for government approval for censorship. You know the weird thing is like the sex is one thing that we think we can we can get approval on, but it’s the homosexuality that we’re gonna get more pushback on.</p><p><b> So what’s the stigma associated with HIV in Vietnam?<br></b>Le: The stigma is either you’re having sex with everybody, having sex for money, or you’re a heavy drug user.</p> <p><b>Some people think their life is over once they find out they're HIV-positive. Is that one of the misconceptions that you wanted to address as well?<br></b>Cako: There are a bunch of surveys in Vietnam that show that they fear about what their families think, what their friends think, and also about the gossip in the neighborhood—that is something that’s really strong in Vietnam. So basically the whole social thing is so tiring for HIV-positive people and we're trying to show that HIV is manageable.</p> <div class="article__embed article__embed--vice" data-related-article="true"><iframe src="https://www.vice.com/en_asia/embed/article/43b77p/gambia-yahya-jammeh-fake-aids-cure?utm_source=stylizedembed_vice.com&utm_campaign=43zyx3&site=vice" frameborder="0" style="border:0px none;margin:0px;" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><p>Le: There’s stigma coming from the outside that he’s talking about but there’s also the pressure that these people put on themselves because they feel like they’ve done something wrong, they feel like they’re putting their families or lovers at risk. So there’s a lot of pressure that comes from within too and this campaign hopefully works to dispel both of them or alleviate the pressures.</p> <p><b> Is there anything that surprised when you were researching for these films?<br></b>Le: Yes. So we got a lot of data and did you know that the infection rate of the people living with HIV, that 63 percent of that is through sex and not through injecting drugs, like you would've thought. </p> <p>We all have this image of this the intravenous drug user in the alley with HIV, you know? But it’s through sex. There’s a little bit of a bias here. If you’re a heavy drug user, you’re not going to be responding to treatment, or you’re not going to outreach centers so we’re getting less data from those people. So there’s a bit of bias, but the discrepancy is huge.</p><p><b> You premiered these films on World AIDS Day in December. What's the reaction been like?<br></b>Le: We anticipated a lot of backlash from people because when you look online and you look at the campaigns that are out, there’s nothing this raw, you know? But actually, people don’t really care, as in like, they don’t mind seeing two people kissing, you know? We underestimated people’s appetite for raw messaging. But the feedback’s been really good. Especially at the event—they did a conference in Hué—the feedback’s been really nice because it’s refreshing to see HIV and this whole topic talked about in a way that’s positive and romantic even rather than scary.</p><p><i>This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. </i></p>

Health

A Raw, Romantic Campaign Paints a New Narrative of HIV In Vietnam

LGBTQ

AIDS

awareness

world aids day

Donating blood is an act of kindness. Getting yourself checked for sexually transmitted infections is as well, as it stops you from spreading diseases to others. One man in Singapore didn&#x2019;t make that connection, however, when he donated his HIV-positive blood. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to jail for lying about his sexual history.

The 35-year-old man, whose identity is currently protected under a gag order, lied in a questionnaire about his sexual history, which was required before he could donate blood on Sept. 30, 2017. For this, he [has been sentenced to four months in jail](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/man-donates-blood-lied-sex-history-hiv-jail-hsa-moh-11967346) and a fine of SG$10,000 ($7,200) under the Infectious Diseases Act, CNA reported.

One of the questions was: &#x201c;Male donor: Have you ever engaged in sexual activity with another male?" He answered &#x201c;no.&#x201d; Another question asked if he has engaged in sexual activities with anyone he knew for less than six months, to which he said &#x201c;no&#x201d; as well. A medical screener even interviewed the man after he completed the questionnaire to inform him that he could be prosecuted for false and misleading answers.

When he was found to be HIV-positive, the man was interviewed by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

"During the interview, the (man) claimed that he had never had sexual intercourse before and insisted that he did not participate in any risk activities," Jason Lee, a legal assistant director at the MOH [told CNA](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/man-donates-blood-lied-sex-history-hiv-jail-hsa-moh-11967346).

However, the man later admitted to an MOH officer that he had sex in public with a man he didn&#x2019;t know in June 2017. He also said he engaged in sexual activities with strangers he met in the Philippines.

The man had donated blood five times before without complications. Only on his sixth donation at Bloodbank@HSA, was he found to be HIV-positive.

A spokesperson for the HSA told CNA that the man&#x2019;s previous donations were not contaminated with HIV, and that the blood from the sixth donation was &#x201c;immediately isolated and destroyed.&#x201d; They said that &#x201c;none of the donated blood was transfused to patients."

In 2015, a similar case happened in Singapore, where a casino worker lied about his sexual history and [donated blood with HIV](https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/hiv-blood-donor-lied-about-sexual-history). He received three months in jail and was fined SG$10,000 ($7,200).

_Find Edoardo on [**Twitter**](http://twitter.com/edoardo_liotta) and [**Instagram**](http://instagram.com/__edoardo)._

Man With HIV Donated Blood After Lying About Sexual History

What's Behind the Philippines' Youth HIV Epidemic?

A Raw, Romantic Campaign Paints a New Narrative of HIV In Vietnam

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