DUE TO disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the country may be facing a new surge in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) – another health crisis we cannot afford.
Figures from the National AIDS Registry showed that at the height of lockdowns from April to June 2020, only 934 new HIV cases were detected countrywide, down 68 percent from the 2,938 spotted in the same three-month period in 2019. Overall, from January to September this year, only 5,627 new HIV cases were diagnosed, down 42 percent from the 9,749 discovered in the same nine-month period in 2019.
Perhaps one reason for the big drop in newly reported HIV cases is that fewer Filipinos who may be living with HIV are actually getting tested. Thus, we may have a larger number of undiagnosed and untreated individuals out there contributing to the spread of HIV, mainly through sexual contact, without them knowing it.
HIV causes AIDS, or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which destroys the human body’s natural ability to ward off all kinds of infections. Although HIV still does not have any known cure, early diagnosis and antiretroviral therapy (ART) slows the progression of the virus to a near halt and reduces the risk of transmission, according to the Department of Health.
A total of 45,981 Filipinos living with HIV were undergoing ART as of September this year. They account for 57 percent of the 80,434 cases listed in the National AIDS Registry as of September. The registry includes 4,196 reported deaths, representing over five percent of the cases.
Our fight against AIDS may have been set back by the COVID-19 crisis, leaving thousands of Filipinos living with HIV undiagnosed and untreated. But here’s one good news. During the recent Dec. 1 observance of World AIDS Day, the US Embassy announced the launch of a new President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-funded program. The US has committed more than P875 million over two years for US-Philippines bilateral efforts, with implementation by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), among others.
The PEPFAR program will address the increasing number of people who are living with HIV in the Philippines, which has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region. We have to expand our prevention strategy through increased access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, strengthen HIV testing and case-finding in the post-COVID era, and connect HIV-diagnosed clients with better HIV treatment regimens and retention programs.
The most recent data from the DOH-Epidemiology Bureau of the Philippines estimates that more than 110,000 Filipinos are living with HIV as of 2020. That’s worrisome.
