The Philippines is seeing 26 newly diagnosed cases of HIV per day with over 7,500 cases reported this year alone. Although there is increasing access to testing and treatment services, people living with HIV are learning too late about their infection. As a consequence, an increasing number of people develop AIDS, rather than receiving effective antiretroviral treatment that can keep them healthy and prevent further transmission. In this year alone, there was an 89% increase in reported AIDS cases (955) as opposed to the previous year (503).
“It’s definitely good to see increasing enrolment in treatment, but the pace is still not fast enough. Today, only 1 in 3 people who live with HIV in the Philippine receive antiretroviral treatment – while every person with HIV can benefit from this treatment”, stressed WHO Country Representative in the Philippines Dr Gundo Weiler. “The biggest bottleneck to effective treatment and prevention is that individuals are not aware of their status. Early detection is vital to ending AIDS in the Philippines by 2030.”
HIV testing coverage remains low among various population groups. For example, global coverage rates for all HIV testing, prevention, and treatment are lower among men than women. Globally, men account for 50% of all people living with HIV, but only 30% of people who have tested for HIV. As a result, men living with HIV are less likely to be diagnosed and put on antiretroviral treatment and are more likely to die of HIV-related causes than women. In the Philippines, more than 90% of all HIV infections were diagnosed among men, mostly among men who have sex with men.
The lack of knowledge of one’s HIV status is a major barrier to accessing treatment and adopting safe sex not just in the Philippines, but also globally. “The Philippines has taken significant steps to make it easier for everybody to get tested – both at official testing sites and by taking HIV screening to the communities”, added Dr Weiler. “We need to further expand HIV testing and double our efforts to make testing for those at risk as easy as possible”.
In an effort to increase awareness of HIV status, an increasing number of countries are introducing the possibility for people to test themselves for HIV in the privacy of their homes, an approach called “HIV self-testing” that has been added to WHO’s global HIV guidelines. Supporting the DOH campaign focus on testing and prevention, Dr Weiler concluded: “HIV testing is the key to both prevention and treatment. Everybody at risk should get tested now; together we can break the chain of transmission!”