HIV prevention efforts ‘poor’

HONG KONG: The Philippines is not doing enough to tackle soaring HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men by offering greater access to HIV testing and condoms, an international rights group said yesterday.

The prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men in the country has increased tenfold over the last five years, Human Rights Watch said in a report. Last year, at least 11 cities in the Philippines reported HIV prevalence rates of more than 5% among men who have sex with men.

The Philippines introduced effective policies targeting the outbreak of HIV among sex workers in the 1990s, however “it has failed to adapt its prevention strategies in line with the epidemic’s shifting epicentre”, HRW said. In 2013, the World Health Organisation also warned the Philippines of the risk of focusing HIV prevention programmes only on female sex workers, saying the virus continued to spread, unabated, among other key groups that had “little or no access to services suited to their needs”.

Officials at the Department of Health were not immediately available for comment.

HRW said national education on effective HIV prevention methods in the Catholic country were non-existent, adding that laws prohibit condom access and HIV testing to people under the age of 18 without parental permission.