Data from the Department of Health shows that the number of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) in the country is expected to increase to an estimated 252,800 by the end of this year.
According to a report by the Epidemiology Bureau of the DOH, there are 149,375 PLHIVs in the country that have been diagnosed or laboratory confirmed, as of September. Majority of them, or 67 percent, are currently on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy (ART), with 57 percent having been tested for viral load, or the amount of HIV present in an infected person’s blood, within the past year.
Although most PLHIVs who are diagnosed are already on ART, this still falls short of the 95 by 95 by 95 targets set by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), which has a goal of diagnosing 95 percent of all PLHIVs, with 95 percent receiving treatment, of which 95 percent would have a suppressed viral load by 2030.
DOH data indicates that from July to September this year, there were 5,583 newly confirmed cases of HIV, which is 22 percent higher than the number of cases recorded in the same period last year.
On average, there are 61 cases of HIV reported in the country per day, also 22 percent higher than last year’s average of 50 cases per day.
Ninety-five percent of these new cases are males, 42 percent being 25 to 34 years old, and 30 percent just 15 to 24 years old. Sexual contact is consistently the leading mode of transmission.
The DOH pointed out that there have been 9,903 total deaths reported among PLHIVs since January 1984, of which 47 percent had an advanced case of the infection at the time of diagnosis. The data also showed that the number of newly diagnosed cases at an advanced stage has been decreasing.
Although there have been improvements, the continuing increase of PLHIVs in the country proves that the effort remains wanting, which still seems to be the case with every passing year. How many people in the Philippines need to be infected and live with HIV before our government will do more to finally reverse the trend?*
