ADB tells Asia-Pacific countries to work together vs HIV/AIDS

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday called on countries to work together is the ongoing fight against the deadly HIV/AIDS virus. “By working together with governments, civil society, affected populations, the private sector and faith-based communities, we can jointly move forward in halting the spread of the epidemic in Asia and the Pacific," said ADB vice president for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Ursula Schaefer-Preuss during the 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. The gathering, the largest HIV/AIDS forum in Asia and the Pacific and the second largest in the world, is being held in Busan, South Korea from August 25 to 30. Five of the events during the congress are being organized by the ABD, including talks on HIV mitigation in infrastructure development and improving public-private partnerships. The congress comes at a time when HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines are on the rise. Increasing number of cases According to Health Assistant Secretary Enrique Tayag, some 45,000 Filipinos may be infected with HIV/AIDS before the current administration steps down in 2016 if government does not employ measures controlling its spread. Tayag added that from the current count of less than 10,000 cases, there could be a five-fold increase in HIV/AIDS cases by 2015, the highest since the country first started monitoring the disease in 1884. Latest data from a 2008 study reported that there were between 6,000 and 11,000 HIV/AIDS cases in the country. By March 2011, the total number of reported cases reached 6,498, of which 483 were new cases. Early in 2010, the Health Department reported that the “doubling time" for HIV/AIDS cases has gone from 10 years in the 1990s to just a year in 2009. Currently, nearly six new cases are reported daily, compared to only one case a day in 2009. Cases of HIV-infected blood bags have also been a concern of the Health Department. According to a report on GMA News’ “24 Oras" Monday, 22 were found by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine contaminated with the virus in July 2011 alone.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV The MSM sector Between 2001 and 2009, 33 countries reported a 25 percent drop in HIV/AIDS cases, according to a 2010 UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. According to ADB, since the first case of HIV was reported 30 years ago, different governments in the Asia and the Pacific region have made steady progress in mitigating its spread. However, AIDS incidence increases of more than 25 percent were reported in seven countries, including the Philippines. According to a Department of Health (DOH) report, males from 20-29 years old reported the most number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country. A United Nations (UN) official last July urged the Philippine government to focus on the MSM (men who have sex with men) sector to curb the spread of HIV. In 2011, the DOH reported that HIV is usually transmitted among MSM, noting that in May 2011, 83 percent of new HIV cases occurred in the MSM sector. — With Bea Cupin/VS, GMA News