The Department of Health (DOH) admitted yesterday that the number of those approaching them and undergoing HIV testing has decreased since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The DOH yesterday commemorated those who died due to AIDS complications in conjunction with the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day commemoration. According to the agency, 4,574 patients have been reported dead from 1984 to 2020.
As of December 2020, HIV testing has dropped to 61%, while those undergoing treatment initiations have also dropped by 28%.
It is estimated that there will be 111,400 Filipinos living with HIV by 2020, but only 70% of them are aware of their condition due to many’s refusals undergoing testing. About 61% of them are now undergoing ‘antiretroviral therapy’ to prolong their lives.
The DOH once again encouraged Filipinos to undergo free HIV testing and confirm their health did not worsen.
As part of priority group A3, the DOH advised HIV positives to first seek clearance from their doctors before undergoing COVID-19 vaccination.
Male-to-male sex remained the dominant mode of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission in the Philippines, data showed.
HIV testing amid pandemic decreases: DOH
Sexual contact is still the predominant mode of transmission, with 725 (99%), of which 637 (88%) were thru male-to-male sex (MSM).
From January to October of 2020, there were 6,362 new HIV cases, including 1,287 AIDS cases and 716 deaths.
Since 1984, there have been 81,169 HIV cases, with 10,552 AIDS cases and 4,444 deaths in the Philippines.
Earlier, UNICEF reported that a child or a young person below 20 years old every minute and 40 seconds acquire HIV in 2019, bringing the total number of children with HIV to 2.8 million.
“Prevention efforts and treatment for children remain some of the lowest amongst key affected populations. In 2019, a little more than half of the children worldwide had access to life-saving treatment, significantly lagging behind coverage for both mothers (85 percent) and all adults living with HIV (62 percent). Nearly 110,000 children died of AIDS that year,” the report said.
The pediatric antiretroviral treatment coverage is highest in the Middle East and North Africa, at 81 percent, followed by South Asia (76 percent), Eastern and Southern Africa (58 percent), East Asia and the Pacific (50 percent), Latin America, and the Caribbean (46 percent) and West and Central Africa (32 percent).