DOH chief to meet with stakeholders in campaign vs HIV/AIDS

MANILA, Philippines - Health Secretary Enrique Ona is set to meet with various stakeholders in a campaign to curb the rising trend of HIV/AIDS cases in the country.

In an interview, Ona said the Department of Health (DOH) hopes to come up with strategies on how to control the disease which has afflicted 8,850 Filipinos from 1984 to February this year. Of the figure, 985 have developed AIDS.

“I will meet with HIV stakeholders and come up with a recommendation. We want to get inputs from the stakeholders so that we can come up with strategies,” he said.

DOH records show the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases ever reported in the Philippine registry was 274 cases, with six full-blown AIDS cases, last February.

The DOH started observing the upward trend in HIV/AIDS cases five years ago from men who have sex with men (MSM).

Three years ago, the agency noted growing cases of HIV among drug users in Cebu, alarming advocates that the AIDS virus could easily spread among drug users who share infected needles.

“This is very important finding – 80 percent of cases were transmitted through MSM. We hope we can come up with ways to control this,” Ona said.

Records show that of the 8,850 cases, 8,089 were infected through sexual contact; 307 through needle sharing of drug users; 56 through mother-to-child transmission; 20 through blood transfusion; and three cases through needle pricks.

To control the spread of HIV, the DOH will refocus its efforts on sectors and places that are “highly at risk” for the infections. 

So far, HIV/AIDS has been identified as “highly prevalent” in 72 cities and municipalities across the country.

Worldwide, the number of new infections has gone down by more than 20 percent since 1997, but the Philippines is still among seven countries reporting an upward trend in HIV/AIDS cases.

The six other nations are Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.