HIV/AIDS and women in the Philippines
Medicine Cabinet — Reiner W. Gloor
IT IS ALARMING how quickly the numbers of HIV/AIDS cases have risen in just the past few years here in the Philippines. Despite being still officially tagged as a low-HIV prevalence country, with less than 0.1% of the adult population estimated to be HIV-positive, more new cases are being reported today than even two years ago. As of April 2015, the Department of Health (DoH) AIDS Registry reported 24,936 cumulative cases. In that same month, there were 560 new cases reported, showing a 42% increase compared to the same period the previous year. Within the years of 2001 to 2015, the number of cases diagnosed per year increased 37 times, from just 174 cases diagnosed in 2001 to 6,552 new cases within the first 10 months of 2015 alone.