Struggling against silence: The HIV crisis among Filipino youth

Every year, another alarming statistic forces Filipinos to confront a troubling truth: HIV infections in the country are skyrocketing.

- ANNA MAE YU LAMENTILLO

The Philippines is now grappling with one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world, and in the Western Pacific region, it stands alone at the top of a list no country wants to lead.

From 2010 to 2023, new HIV infections increased by an estimated 543 percent. The daily average of new diagnoses, which hovered around 21 in the pre-pandemic years, has now surged to 56 or 57 cases each day, according to recent data from the Department of Health. As of March 2025, over 139,000 Filipinos are living with HIV. But projections are far grimmer: that number could balloon to 252,000 by the end of the year and reach up to half a million by 2030 if the country fails to act decisively.

What makes this crisis particularly devastating is the profile of those being affected. Young Filipinos, some barely out of high school, are bearing the brunt. Around one in three new cases are among those aged 15 to 24, while nearly half are among those between 25 and 34. In the early years of the epidemic, HIV was often associated with older adults, but today it is clearly a youth-driven epidemic in the Philippines. The numbers speak for themselves. From 2010 to 2022, HIV infections among youth rose by more than 400 percent, while AIDS-related deaths more than quintupled.