The primary issue I have with the DOH's latest statement was: 'So what are you gonna do about it'?

In PDI's report, the DOH mentions a bunch of reasons for the rise of HIV-AIDS in the country as described by Philippine National AIDS Council secretariat Ferchito Avelino, such as:

Now those make sense.

The first deals with the lack of a support group. Understood since this HIV-AIDS rise is relatively new, so no one's taken up the cudgels yet. I imagine in a few weeks or so, one will show up eventually. So check that.

The second has to do with adults not talking to their children enough about sex. That's an age old problem dealt either by teaching adults how to do it properly so as to lose their shyness, or taking over the job and teaching kids directly via sex education in schools (a touchy subject - no pun intended), or other methods. So check that too.

But the third one is different, as described and I quote, by a Dr. Eric Tayag of the DOH National Epidemiology Center:

This reason is different from the others in the sense that there is no way to stop that. You can put up support groups, you can educate the youth. But you can't stop social networking sites. So why mention it at all?

Granted however, I'm willing to allow the possibility the writer interpreted their dialogue a little bit to produce a nice headline. 'More HIV-AIDS Cases Linked To Internet' is a very catchy title, it certainly got me.

The problem is, blaming the 'net pretty much for anything these days is such a tired old way to get attention and often makes the accusers look silly and not know what they're talking about. Besides, rising HIV-AIDS cases is alarming in itself without having to point fingers.

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