Malacañang has been urged to earmark a larger budget for the prevention of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) program following the increasing cases of HIV in the country.
LPG/MA party-list Rep. Arnel Ty expressed alarm over the 178 new HIV cases in June, marking a 63 percent increase from last year and bringing the cumulative number of HIV cases reported in the first half of the year to 1,016.
Quoting the National HIV and AIDS Registry, Ty said there were about 7,031 cases, including 875 with advanced AIDS.
A total of 325 patients have already died or 37 percent of those with full-blown AIDS, he said.
Ty, who filed House Resolution 724 to ask the government to implement aggressive measures to address HIV, has been calling for a comprehensive reexamination of the 1998 AIDS Prevention and Control Law.
He said the needs of the growing number of Filipinos with HIV should also be addressed by the government.
The Philippine National AIDS Council has warned that by 2015, up to 46,000 Filipinos could be diagnosed with HIV.
Dr. Edsel Salvana, a specialist in infectious disease medicine, has also cautioned the government that it might spend P1 billion annually by 2015, just to acquire the anti-retroviral drugs needed to treat Filipinos with HIV.
(source: Manila Bulletin)
