A more aggressive and drug-resistant HIV subtype is behind skyrocketing HIV infection rates in the Philippines. Epidemiologist Edsel Salvana tells DW that the new strain is threatening to spark a new epidemic.
Remarkable advancement in the prevention, management and treatment of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has led to a global decline in HIV as well as new infection rates. The Philippines, however, remains an outlier.
The country has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region.
The total number of new HIV infections in the Philippines increased by 140 percent from 2010 to 2016, according to the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) and UNAIDS, the United Nations agency on HIV and AIDS.
DOH data show that as of December 2017, there were 50,725 reported cases of HIV in the Philippines. And the agency forecasts the total number of HIV cases in the country to reach 142,400 by 2022.
In an interview with DW, Dr. Edsel Salvana, Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the National Institutes of Health at the University of the Philippines, talks about the new strain — the HIV AE subtype — and its implications for Philippine society.
DW: Give us an overview of this new HIV subtype AE and how it is affecting new HIV infection rates.
Edsel Salvana: The HIV virus has the potential to transform itself into a new and different virus each time it affects a cell. There are nearly 100 different subtypes of HIV, with new subtypes being discovered every day.