Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has apologized to the community of Filipinos afflicted with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) following his social media comment calling the disease “embarrassing” as opposed to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“My apologies to the community for any offense I may have caused in stating my support for loosening of data privacy for contact tracing efforts. Rest assured that I am one with you all in destigmatizing HIV in society,” Locsin said in his Twitter account on Tuesday.
Locsin’s apology stemmed from a post he made on Monday, April 6, 2020, saying, “Unlike HIV, there is nothing embarrassing about having your medical records made public for coronavirus. There’s a difference and it’s a big one: no privacy for Covid cases.”
The DFA secretary’s comment was a reaction to a call to loosen restrictions on data privacy law to hasten contract tracing of COVID-19 cases.
This prompted the HIV advocate group, The Red Whistle, to call on the Philippines’ top diplomat to “reflect on his words and publicly apologize” to the thousands of Filipinos with HIV that may have been offended.
“In this time of a great public health crisis where government officials are put under the microscope and are scrutinized based on how well or how poorly they respond to the crisis, we enjoin the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to reflect on his words and publicly apologize to the tens and thousands of Filipinos living with HIV at home and abroad that he may have offended,” the Makati-based The Red Whistle group said in a statement posted on its official Twitter account.
As public health activists, the group called on the government to strike a balance between public health goals and the protection of the privacy of individuals “especially if it exposes them to undue stigma and discrimination.”
“Patients are people first and foremost, and should be accorded the same amount of dignity and respect, regardless of health status,” the group said.
Last year, international agencies including the United Nations, raised concerns over the fast-rising HIV cases in the Philippines.
The Department of Health (DoH) reported that the number of HIV cases in the Philippines has climbed to 36 per day.
In August 2019 for example, the DoH recorded a total of 1,228 HIV cases with 70 deaths while 165 cases progressed into Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. (Roy Mabasa)
