There is a red light up: One million people die every year from life-threatening Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV, a sexually transmitted infection.
HIV, which can cause Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS, interferes with the body’s ability to fight the organisms that cause disease.
While it appears, according to World Health Organization and UN AIDS Program, that new HIV cases reported worldwide had plunged from 2.1 million in 2015 to 1.8 million in 2016, such cases continued to rise in the Philippines in 2017. Health analysts say there has been more than 3,100 percent overflow since 2007 in sharp contrast to a worldwide swing.
There are those who claim the number of HIV cases in the Philippines remains low, given the population of 106 million.
But these same claimants should do some rethinking, after the United Nations said in August last year this nation of several ethnicities has the fastest gallop in HIV epidemic in Asia-Pacific, which has a population of 4.3 billion, or 60 percent of the world population of 7.53 billion as of 2017.
The UN report has identified the Philippines as one of eight countries that account “for more than 90 percent of new HIV infections” in Asia-Pacific.
But while there is a red light up, there is a green light also in the horizon: Researches are being conducted to find new and effective ways to prevent HIV.
The Rockville, Maryland-based National Institutes of Health in the United States has been conducting research focused on behavioral strategies designed to delay sexual activity among young people and reduce sexually transmitted infections.
It is also doing research on drug abuse intervention and treatment programs to prevent HIV transmission among injection drug users.
This is the right track.