HIV/AIDS risk in the Philippines: Focus on adolescents and young adults by Deborah Balk, Grace Cruz, and Tim Brown. East-West Center Working Papers, Population and Health Series, No. 93. October 1997. 36 pp.

Abstract

Although AIDS has not spread rapidly in the Philippines, an analysis of data from the 1994 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS-II) shows that young men are at considerable risk of infection through sexual routes. Results from the survey of 15-24 year olds shows that over one-third of young men engage in sex before marriage with a partner other than their future wife. By age 24, 20 percent of young men have had sex with a commercial sex worker. Although only slightly more than 2 percent of young women in the Philippines report premarital sex with a partner other than their future husband, women are at risk of HIV infection through the previous and current sexual activities of their partners.

Awareness of AIDS is nearly universal, but knowledge is rather limited. Most young people (85 percent) can identify at least one sexual mode of transmission, and 25 percent can identify at least one non-sexual transmission mode. Misperceptions about HIV transmission are not common, but 16 percent of young people who know about AIDS believe that HIV can be transmitted by having contact with the belongings of an infected person. Education and regular exposure to television, radio, or newspapers increase awareness of and knowledge about AIDS.

Nearly all young men have heard of condoms. Most also know that condoms, if used correctly, can protect against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Only 23 percent of sexually active young men have ever used a condom, however. Even in commercial sex, condom use is low. Only 27 percent of young men who visited a commercial sex worker during the year before the survey report using condoms most or all of the time. Education, regular media exposure, and urban residence all increase the likelihood of lifetime condom use, and young men with good knowledge of AIDS are more likely that others to have ever used a condom.

Widespread sexual activity combined with low condom use indicates the potential for a serious AIDS epidemic in the Philippines. To prevent such an epidemic from occurring, young people must be educated about the risks of infection, and barriers to condom use must be alleviated.