Health Secretary Ted Herbosa on Tuesday said the public’s attention should shift from mpox to HIV, which he described as a far more alarming and urgent health crisis in the Philippines.
“Our biggest problem isn’t monkeypox but the spread of HIV. We’ve seen a 500% increase in HIV cases among those aged 15 to 25. In fact, the youngest person we’ve diagnosed is a 12-year-old from the province of Palawan,” he said.
From January to March this year, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded an average of 57 new HIV cases every day.
The Philippines now has the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the Western Pacific Region, based on recent global health data.
If left unchecked, Herbosa said the number of people living with HIV in the country could surpass 400,000.
“Antiretroviral medications are expensive, so we need to increase testing, boost prevention efforts, expand access to treatment, and work to reduce viral loads,” he said.
Herbosa also called for the declaration of a national public health emergency to galvanize coordinated action across government and society.
The health secretary emphasized that HIV is now a treatable condition and no one should be dying of AIDS in 2025.
“The whole of society and the whole of government can help us in this campaign to curb new cases of HIV,” he concluded.
