HIV testing: Time for a reset

From a “slow but rising disease burden,” HIV/AIDS is now a full-blown epidemic in the Philippines, as the DOH requests a health emergency declaration to address the rapidly growing HIV epidemic in the country due to the alarming statistics.

- RAYMUND W. LO, MD, FPSP

In spite of two successive laws (RA8504 and RA11166 in 1998 and 2018 respectively) for HIV/AIDS control, there has been an increasing, and this year, an explosion in the number of diagnosed HIV-AIDS cases. This is an indication that past efforts have not been effective and we need alternative approaches to the problem.

The main issue is the failure/refusal to analyze why the policies and regulations have failed to stem the epidemic. I am speaking from the perspective of one who experienced firsthand the early 1980s AIDS epidemic in New York City. I saw how the testing was handled, being a Pathology resident at that time, and how government efforts controlled the epidemic in subsequent years.

On returning to the Philippines in 1987, I attended the initial discussions on HIV testing, which was just another serologic test, like Hepatitis B or syphilis. It was a rigid two-week regimen of training medical technologists in HIV testing, to which I objected since it was a routine test. They didn't listen.

In addition, there was a requirement for preand post-test counseling, which was another way of stigmatizing people, knowing that the main risk factor for HIV/AIDS is unprotected sex.