UN: Ingredients of AIDS explosion in the Philippines

By Cher Jiminez
October 21, 2004

The international community on Wednesday warned that an anemic government effort may play a major factor in an impending epidemic of the humane immunodeficiency virus-acute immune deficiency syndrome in the country, even if transmission of the virus is now described as “low and slow.”

Kathleen Cravero, deputy director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV-AIDS (UNAIDS), said the Philippines cannot stay complacent on this issue because it has all the ingredients for an explosion.

At the 15th Global AIDS Conference held in Bangkok in July, UNAIDS warned that Asia may even surpass Africa in terms of number of infections if prevention efforts are not beefed up.

“I do not think the Philippines can use low HIV prevalence as a security blanket,” Cravero told a forum at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City.

Since 1984 when its first case of HIV was detected, a total of 2,212 people have been diagnosed to have the disease as of August this year, according to the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC).

Cravero said the Philippines has all the factors that can cause a potential epidemic. She identified these as low condom use among vulnerable individuals like sex-industry workers, young people engaged in risky sexual behavior, the high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, poor health-seeking behavior, and lack of knowledge about the disease among the high-risk population.

“The UN in the Philippines, in its Common Country Assessment, noted that the threat of HIV in this country is real,” she said.

Cravero added that the government must show some political will in addressing HIV-AIDS in the country to prevent a sudden increase of cases. The PNAC estimates that there are actually 10,000 PLHAs in the country who have to submit themselves for testing.

“I would maintain—and the leaders of this country might agree—that more time and resources should be spent preventing problems than fixing them. The low-prevalence status of HIV in the Philippines today does not present a dilemma. It should be seized as an opportunity,” noted Cravero.

Jean Marc Olive, country representative of the World Health Organization, said the government is “not doing enough” to address the problem. “We’ve become complacent, the government may have lost interest, he said, adding that it is hard to promote condoms among conservative Filipinos.

Roderick Poblete of the PNAC said the Department of Health has allotted P1 million this year for the purchase of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that are being taken by PLHAs to prevent the virus from spreading in their bodies.

Poblete admitted that 85 percent of recorded sex in the country is “unprotected.” He added that the P1-million budget for ARVs can only accommodate 50 of 656 Filipinos with AIDS. Most PLHAs have no access to AIDS drugs which would cost them around P40,000 a month.

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