HIV in the Philippines: why it must act fast to control growing epidemic, as advocacy groups lead the way
- While many countries, including in Southeast Asia, have seen a fall in new HIV infections, the Philippines has seen a sharp rise
- Bureaucracy, a conservative society and the Catholic Church are the main stumbling blocks to effective action
Decades after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was identified in the 1980s, the number of Aids-related deaths worldwide is the lowest it has been this century. Fewer than one million people are dying each year from complications arising from the disease – versus two million each in 2004 and 2005 – thanks in part to access to antiretroviral therapy treatment, which has reached a record 21.7 million sufferers. Three out of four people living with HIV now know their status.
That’s according to the 2018 Global Aids Update of UNAids, released in June. However, the rate of new infections is not falling fast enough, the United Nations agency found. HIV prevention services are still not being provided on an adequate scale or with sufficient intensity.
The picture in Southeast Asia is patchy. Sustained efforts to reach “key populations” – which UNAids describes as young people aged 15 to 24 – has led to a significant fall in new cases in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.
The Philippines, however, is one country in the region where the number of new cases is on the rise – and at an alarming rate. UNAids says the number of new infections in the country among young people has risen 170 per cent since 2010.
From an average of one new case a day in 2008, the country now clocks an average of 26 new cases daily, the agency found.
There is no indication that the trend will slow down any time soon. Annual new infections more than doubled in the Philippines in the seven years to 2017, to an estimated 12,000. The sixth HIV & Aids Medium Term Plan (2017 to 2022) of the Philippine National Aids Council states that as of June 2016, the number of people living with HIV had reached a total of 34,999. There are updated figures available.