QC, health lead HIV/Aids battle

The Quezon City government, the Department of Health and USAID have partnered to deal with increasing cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

At a news conference at Annabel’s in Quezon City, Assistant Secretary for Field Implementation and Management Office Paulyn Jean Ubial said the reported cases have continued to rise in the last five years with 17 new cases per day.

“We collect data every week (to closely monitor the incidence of HIV and AIDS infection,” she said.

USAID senior public health advisor Milton Amayon called for immediate action.

“We need to focus more on intervention, just like what Quezon City is doing,” told the forum “Partners in the Fight Against HIV, Start Here Right Now.”

In recent studies and statistics of DoH-National Epidemiology Center, 77 percent of the total new number of HIV and AIDS cases in the country are in the National Capital Region with the most number of cases found in Quezon City.

From 1984 to 2014, of the 21,526 cases reported, 9,674 cases came from the metro.

At least 13 percent or 2,743 cases came from Region 4A, followed by 9 percent or 1,972 from Region 7, 8 percent or 1,709 from Region 3, 6 percent or 1,260 from Region 11.

The rest of the country comprised 15 percent or 3,075 cases.

“The health department has projected there would be 36,911 people living with HIV (and AIDS) by next year,” Amayon said.

“It’s like bad news that causes a lot of alarm for many Filipinos. The threat of HIV is growing. We need to pay attention to it.”

According to Amayon, even a 2012 global report showed Philippines is one of the nine countries where HIV prevalence is increasing. –Rio N. Araja, Manila Standard Today