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MANILA, Philippines--As the world marks the 30th year of the discovery of HIV, there is a palpable, even deliberate sense of hope in the air.
AIDS advocates are highlighting advances in HIV-AIDS research, greater efforts at public education and awareness, and signs of country-level progress in curbing numbers of infections from North America to Thailand.
For the Philippines, however, the mood is markedly different. A surge in reported HIV infections over the past years has the country among the most recent in the world to finally declare a national AIDS epidemic.
The future isn’t bright, according to Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Eric Tayag: four to five new cases of HIV infections are being reported in the country everyday. At a recent HIV-AIDS conference, Tayag released a shocking figure: the prevalence of the HIV infections is expected shoot up from 11,000 in 2008 to 45,000 by 2015.
“It is now really our intention to scare individuals in our country about HIV,” Tayag said. “They should wake up to the truth that they are not invincible nor exempted from it. ”
Tip of the iceberg
UN Development Program country director Renaud Meyer had registered his fears about the HIV situation in the Philippines. Although the country’s overall HIV prevalence is still below 1 percent, Meyer said that the figures might only show “the tip of the iceberg.”
As of March 2011, 172 new cases of HIV were reported to the DOH, a 43 percent increase from 2010. This brought the total number of reported Philippine cases to 6,498.
More Filipino males have been infected with HIV than females.
“Instead of reversing and halting the spread of the disease, we see increasing cases,” Meyer said.
Two years ago, Meyer warned that at the rate the country is going, the government is unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of stopping the spread of HIV by 2015.
But Tayag said the Aquino administration still has the chance to buck the trend if it begins making significant steps in educating people about proper testing and prevention of the disease.
The first case of HIV was reported in June 5, 1981 by the US-based Center for Disease Control. Three years later, in 1984, the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) began recording HIV cases in the country and has noted a slow yet very steady increase in reported cases.
Currently, the DOH is monitoring 10 sentinel areas in the country with high HIV prevalence: Angeles, Baguio, Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Zamboanga, Quezon and Pasay.
Cebu has posted the most troubling figures. More than half of the city’s injecting drug user (IDU) population are HIV positive. In a study among 301 IDUs, 160 tested positive for the disease. Tayag said if this was applied to the 3,500 estimated IDUs, then 1,760 are HIV positive.
IDUs are at high risk for the virus when they share needles among each other during their sessions. Drug addicts are also known to engage in unprotected and often high-risk sexual acts and even enter prostitution to pay for their vices.
In the past, some lawmakers pushed for nationwide HIV testing to get a more accurate picture of the spread of the disease in the country. The proposal has long been shot down by HIV/AIDS advocates, who fear that this will be used to fan the flames of stigmatization and discrimination in the country.
Fighting the stigma
For the past four years, the face of HIV in the Philippines has also become younger. Since 2007, majority of the new HIV cases are men aged 25-34 years old who had sex with other men.
Based on the latest figures, 92 percent of newly infected persons are males, with a median age of 27. The most new HIV cases are among young males between 20 and 29 and nearly half (49 percent) of reported are from Metro Manila.
Tayag said that since 2007, young men who have sex with men have been driving the HIV epidemic.
Consequently, Celestino Ramirez, a member of the Positive Action Foundation Philippines, Inc., a support group for people with HIV/AIDS, said discrimination against the gay community is still rampant, despite the fact that HIV/AIDS can afflict people of all ages and sexual persuasions.
Ramirez said that while it is illegal in the country to discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS, the stigma associated with the disease has pushed most individuals with the disease to hide and be invisible.
He urged Filipinos to be more accepting of people living with HIV/AIDS. Ramirez said being well informed about the disease eradicates stigma and discrimination. This was echoed by Tayag, who added that people shouldn’t be afraid to have themselves tested for HIV. He also reminded everyone that HIV/AIDS does not choose anyone based on religion, race or sexual orientation.
“It’s not the sexuality but the behavior that puts you at risk,” he said.
“It is now really our intention to scare individuals in our country about HIV,” Tayag said. “They should wake up to the truth that they are not invincible nor exempted from it. ”
Tip of the iceberg
UN Development Program country director Renaud Meyer had registered his fears about the HIV situation in the Philippines. Although the country’s overall HIV prevalence is still below 1 percent, Meyer said that the figures might only show “the tip of the iceberg.”
As of March 2011, 172 new cases of HIV were reported to the DOH, a 43 percent increase from 2010. This brought the total number of reported Philippine cases to 6,498.
More Filipino males have been infected with HIV than females.
“Instead of reversing and halting the spread of the disease, we see increasing cases,” Meyer said.
Two years ago, Meyer warned that at the rate the country is going, the government is unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of stopping the spread of HIV by 2015.
But Tayag said the Aquino administration still has the chance to buck the trend if it begins making significant steps in educating people about proper testing and prevention of the disease.
The first case of HIV was reported in June 5, 1981 by the US-based Center for Disease Control. Three years later, in 1984, the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) began recording HIV cases in the country and has noted a slow yet very steady increase in reported cases.
Currently, the DOH is monitoring 10 sentinel areas in the country with high HIV prevalence: Angeles, Baguio, Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Zamboanga, Quezon and Pasay.
Cebu has posted the most troubling figures. More than half of the city’s injecting drug user (IDU) population are HIV positive. In a study among 301 IDUs, 160 tested positive for the disease. Tayag said if this was applied to the 3,500 estimated IDUs, then 1,760 are HIV positive.
IDUs are at high risk for the virus when they share needles among each other during their sessions. Drug addicts are also known to engage in unprotected and often high-risk sexual acts and even enter prostitution to pay for their vices.
In the past, some lawmakers pushed for nationwide HIV testing to get a more accurate picture of the spread of the disease in the country. The proposal has long been shot down by HIV/AIDS advocates, who fear that this will be used to fan the flames of stigmatization and discrimination in the country.
Fighting the stigma
For the past four years, the face of HIV in the Philippines has also become younger. Since 2007, majority of the new HIV cases are men aged 25-34 years old who had sex with other men.
Based on the latest figures, 92 percent of newly infected persons are males, with a median age of 27. The most new HIV cases are among young males between 20 and 29 and nearly half (49 percent) of reported are from Metro Manila.
Tayag said that since 2007, young men who have sex with men have been driving the HIV epidemic.
Consequently, Celestino Ramirez, a member of the Positive Action Foundation Philippines, Inc., a support group for people with HIV/AIDS, said discrimination against the gay community is still rampant, despite the fact that HIV/AIDS can afflict people of all ages and sexual persuasions.
Ramirez said that while it is illegal in the country to discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS, the stigma associated with the disease has pushed most individuals with the disease to hide and be invisible.
He urged Filipinos to be more accepting of people living with HIV/AIDS. Ramirez said being well informed about the disease eradicates stigma and discrimination. This was echoed by Tayag, who added that people shouldn’t be afraid to have themselves tested for HIV. He also reminded everyone that HIV/AIDS does not choose anyone based on religion, race or sexual orientation.
“It’s not the sexuality but the behavior that puts you at risk,” he said.
Irrespective of receiving daily oral or future injectable depot therapies, these require health care visits for medication and monitoring of safety and response. If patients are treated early enough, before a lot of immune system damage has occurred, life expectancy is close to normal, as long as they remain on successful treatment. However, when patients stop therapy, virus rebounds to high levels in most patients, sometimes associated with severe illness because i have gone through this and even an increased risk of death. The aim of “cure”is ongoing but i still do believe my government made millions of ARV drugs instead of finding a cure. for ongoing therapy and monitoring. ARV alone cannot cure HIV as among the cells that are infected are very long-living CD4 memory cells and possibly other cells that act as long-term reservoirs. HIV can hide in these cells without being detected by the body’s immune system. Therefore even when ART completely blocks subsequent rounds of infection of cells, reservoirs that have been infected before therapy initiation persist and from these reservoirs HIV rebounds if therapy is stopped. “Cure” could either mean an eradication cure, which means to completely rid the body of reservoir virus or a functional HIV cure, where HIV may remain in reservoir cells but rebound to high levels is prevented after therapy interruption.Dr Itua Herbal Medicine makes me believes there is a hope for people suffering from,Parkinson's disease,Schizophrenia,Cancer,Scoliosis,Fibromyalgia,Fluoroquinolone Toxicity
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