HIV in rise in the Philippines

According to research and analysis of the latest data published by the health agency in the Philippines, an increase was reported for new HIV cases , with rise more than 3% percent surge since 2007. In 2017 the new cases were 11,103 , while in 2016 it was 9,264 cases, with increase of 19.85% , according to a report from Department of health in the Philippines.

Still lower than other countries?

Based on the figures of the Department of Health (DOH), number of Filipinos who are positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) continues to rise. It is reported that 67,000 persons were positive for HIV in 2017. This number is lower compared to numbers of positive HIV cases in some other countries like Thailand. in Thailand , 300,000 cases were reported in the same year.

Public awareness to avoid contracting HIV

Official in the DOH national HIV-STI prevention, finds the 31 new HIV new daily cases as an alarm. “If you observe it, there is an increase in the number of cases every day. While this country, if not stable, it’s number is lowering. This scenario is alarming not because of the actual number of people living with HIV, but the rate of increase,” Dr. Gerard Belimac said.

Public awareness was not from government agencies only , as other organizations (NGO)* are also helping in raising public awareness on how to avoid contracting HIV. One of the most preventive way is to avoid having multiple partners. Many HIV cases may not be known if no screening test is carried out. Free HIV testing will help detecting more case of HIV and prevent spread of infection. The DOH is now offering free HIV testing to pregnant women in the National Capital Region (NCR) and in Cebu City.

I believe that HIV testing must be offered free or at low prices for high risk groups , and to any sexually active person. The test must be done periodically every 6 months or every year. Also more efforts must be done to connect concerned agencies and the public to help share logical revelation and clinical care on HIV and STDs. More comperhensive search for different techniques to analyze HIV, HIV sedate disclosure, viral and bacterial STDs.