Twelve out of 2,442 inmates in the Cebu City Jail tested positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
They are not isolated from the others.
The City Health Department is giving them anti-retrovirus drugs weekly.
Cebu City Health Department head Dr. Daisy Villa said most of them were injecting drug users (IDU).
Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama said the warden should keep in mind that careful handling is needed.
“This is not an ordinary disease. This is traumatic,” he said. He asked the Cebu City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (CCADAC) to help monitor the cases with the health department.
Cebu City Jail Warden Jhonson Calub said he believes the inmates were already infected with the virus before they were committed in the jail. Calub said he was not worried that others would be infected since HIV is transmitted through sexual intercourse or sharing infected syringes.
Calub said he doesn’t isolate the infected inmates because Republic Act 8504 or the Philippine Aids Prevention and Control Act of 1998 prohibits discrimination, in all its forms and subtleties, against individuals with HIV/AIDS or persons perceived or suspected of having HIV/AIDS.
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