HIV rise in Philippines highlights need for global funding

With decreasing global and local funding for HIV/AIDS programs, the Philippines has reported an 800 per cent increase in cases of HIV over the past eight years, leading to fears by the UN that the Southeast Asian country will struggle to meet its Millennium Development Goal of halting the spread of the disease by 2015.

At a health forum in Manila this week organised by the Information, Publication, and Public Affairs Office at the University of the Philippines it was reported that despite there being a total of 7,235 confirmed cases of HIV across the country, over half of those had only been reported in the last four years, with 1,220 cases recorded in 2011 alone.

The country’s Department of Health has attributed the increase to the growing number of cases of males having sex with other males and sex workers, and of drug users using needles.

The 2010 Global AIDS report released by UNAIDS shows that the Philippines was one of only seven nations in the world which recorded an increase of over 25 percent in new HIV infections, whereas other states had either stabilized or shown significant declines in the rate.

Teresita Marie Bagasao, UNAIDS co-ordinator for the Philippines, told the Philippine Daily Enquirer that the country – which received only US$20.4 million in funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFFATM) last year – required a great boost in funding from the global community if it was to tackle the issue in an appropriate way.  

“Eighty percent of resources for AIDS response is external, mainly from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. However, the current Global Fund grant will come to an end in Nov. 2012,” Bagasao said.

“The program may start accepting new funding proposals by late 2013 or early 2014. This means the country’s resource gap will be even greater.”

The UN warning comes only a week after leading AIDS organisations in Australia such as AFAO called on both the Federal Government as well as the governments of other wealthy nations to boost funding for the GFFATM.

“In 2011, all United Nations members adopted a target of a 50 per cent reduction in HIV transmission and 50 per cent of people with HIV being on treatments by 2015. Without the Global Fund, this target is impossible,” AFAO executive director Rob Lake said.

Since 1984, about 3,700 Filipinos have died of AIDS-related causes, including an estimated 500 in 2010.

The UN estimates that there will be 30,000 to 45,000 cases of HIV in the Philippines by 2015 if current efforts are not ramped up.