Philippines grapples alarming HIV epidemic

THE Philippines is confronting the fastest-rising human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region, with an average of 61 Filipinos diagnosed every day this year, up 22% from last year, prompting urgent calls for more decisive national action.

- 

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier identified the Philippines, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea as the countries in the region where HIV infections continue to climb. It said the three now face some of the region's sharpest surges in new HIV infections.

Fiji has recorded a tenfold increase in cases over the past decade, driven mainly by injecting drug use, while Papua New Guinea declared HIV a national crisis in June amid spikes among women of reproductive age and children.

In the Philippines, new HIV infections have risen sixfold from 2010 to 2024, with the WHO estimating a 550 percent jump from 4 400 cases in 2010 to 29 600 in 2024. Young men who have sex with men remain the most affected.