HIV incidence to rise fivefold

The number of Filipinos afflicted with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is expected to increase fivefold and reach over 130,000 in the next seven years, the Department of Health (DOH) warned.

Health Secretary Janette Garin said HIV cases in the country continue to increase, and if the trend is not reversed the government will have to spend P4 billion annually for the treatment of people with HIV.

In the first 10 months of 2015 alone, Garin said the DOH recorded a total of 6,552 people diagnosed with HIV. The figure was 37 percent higher than the total number of HIV incidence for the entire 2001.

There are now a total of 29,079 HIV/AIDS cases in the country since the first case of potentially deadly infection was diagnosed in 1984. Most of the cases or 24,655 were recorded in the last five years.

“In 2000, one HIV cases case was diagnosed every three days. In 2015, one HIV case is detected every hour,” Garin noted as she stressed the need to raise awareness on HIV transmission and prevention.

“If we do not slow down our HIV epidemic and do not invest in preventing new HIV infections , the number of people living with HIV will reach 133,000 by 2020 and this will cost PhilHealth P4 billion per year for the outpatient HIV package alone,” Garin said.

The cost of treatment is expected to increase each year unless the country can stop new infections.

Health authorities attributed the dramatic growth in HIV prevalence to the lack of comprehensive knowledge on HIV transmission and prevention among people, including the high-risk population.

Result of recent study showed that awareness on HIV transmission and prevention remained low for all key populations.

Fewer than 40 percent of males and transgenders who have sex with males, 30 percent of female sex workers and 34 percent of people who inject drugs have comprehensive knowledge about HIV.

“The DOH set a target of 80 percent, but results of the study indicated that HIV knowledge of people aged15-24 years was below half of the target,” Garin pointed out.

The government has set target of 80 percent condom use among males having sex with males to stop the epidemic from the current 44 percent.

“Thus we should not expect to see a decline in new infections among males who have sex with males until we increase condom use and sustain it at high rate,” Garin said.

The major problem is understanding HIV not only as a disease, but what it is in the context of the country’s population.

Health Undersecretary Vicente Belizario said the DOH is looking at different way to curb the growing HIV prevalence among Filipinos.

Belizario said DOH is implementing an information campaign and providing free screening and treatment for people diagnosed with HIV.

Belizario said the DOH intends to double in 2016 the current budget of 300 million for the control and prevention of HIV.

source: Philippine Star