One HIV Case Reported Every Hour in Philippines
MANILA: In what will ring alarm bells with health authorities, Philippines has registered an increase in the number of reported newly-diagnosed HIV cases.
From January this year to October, there are now a total of 6,552 individuals diagnosed with HIV, which is dangerously 37 times higher than the total number of people diagnosed with HIV for the entire year in 2001 (174) during the start of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Outbreak News Today reported.
While in 2000, one HIV case was diagnosed every three days, in 2015, one such case is detected every hour, the report said.
In addition, HIV cases among males and transgender having sex with males have increased 10 times in the past five years. In fact, the country has breached the United Nations 5 percent threshold in this group. Five percent is the United Nations’ threshold to declare an area as having a concentrated epidemic, said the news portal.
From 1984-2009, the predominant mode of transmission was heterosexual sex. However in 2010, sharing of needles among people who inject drugs (PWID), and unprotected sex among males and transgender having sex with males, changed the epidemic scenario in the country, it added.
HIV prevalence is now above 5 percent in eight cities in the country: Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Puerto Princesa, Mandaue, Davao, Quezon City, Paranaque and Makati. In Cebu, HIV prevalence is already at 14 percent, the report pointed out
The country is reportedly falling way short as far as condom use targets for high-risk groups like males having sex with males (MSMs). The target was 80 percent; however, health officials say they’ve only reached 44 percent.
This is blamed on a number of reasons to include unavailability to just plain rejecting to use them.
HIV prevalence in the 15-24 years age bracket is up a whopping 800 percent, according to the health officials.
The epidemic has prompted dire warnings from health officials: Health Secretary Janette P. Loreto-Garin said, “If we do not slow down our HIV epidemic, if we do not invest in preventing new HIV infections, the number of PLHIV will reach 133,000 by 2022”. In addition, she notes the economic cost and strain on PhilHealth, the country’s health insurance program, would be PhP4 billion PHP annually just for outpatient care, Outbreak News Today reported.