Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

MANILA - Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases among the youth in the Philippines "have been increasing at an unprecedented rate," the United Nations representative office in Manila has warned.

"And while the country is still within the target of less than one percent of the population for HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, the rising number of HIV cases has become a cause for alarm," the UN office also said.

According to a UN report furnished the INQUIRER, "HIV cases among the 15-24 age group nearly tripled from 41 in 2007 to 110 in 2008."

"Aside from the youth, other vulnerable populations include persons in prostitution and their clients, males who have sex with males, people who inject drugs, and overseas Filipino workers," said the same report.

To protect the youth from HIV, the local UN office asked the Philippine government to "provide accurate information on AIDS."

"Access to comperehensive services for sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) can help prevent the spread of HIV," it said.

Local government units "need to ensure that comprehensive STI services are in place and accessible at the local level. They should also know the HIV and STI epidemics in their constituencies."

"We need to generate timely, strategic information for appropriate action. By knowing our epidemic, we can strengthen targeted interventions for the most-at-risk and vulnerable populations. Knowing our epidemics will enable us to plan low-cost and high-impact interventions at the local and national levels," the UN office added.

Fighting HIV-AIDS and other killer diseases is one of the eight Millenium Development Goals for global human development. The targets, anchored on eradicating extreme poverty by 2015, were formulated by 189 UN member-states at the start of the new millenium.

The other MDG targets are achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.

Under the combat HIV-AIDS target, UN member-countries were asked to "halt and begin to reverse" the spread of the disease and "achieve by 2010 universal access to treatment for HIV-AIDS for all those who need it."

The UN office in Manila earlier disclosed that the Philippines continued to lag behind on its MDG targets.

"While the Philippines is progressing well in its bid to achieve most of the targets, faster pace of gains is urgently needed to reach some of the 2015 goals, especially because poverty has increased in the country."

The UN office referred to "current trending" which showed "targets for MDG Goal No. 2 (achieving universal primary education) and Goal No. 5 (improving maternal health) are least likely to be achieved."

Poverty incidence here "rose from 30 percent in 2003, when population was at 80 million, to 33 percent in 2006, when population had ballooned to 86 million."

According to the UN office, "poverty incidence in the Philippines shows stark inequalities: 7 percent of Metro Manila; 44.2 percent of Luzon; 20.5 percent of the Visayas; 35.4 percent of Mindanao; and 60 percent of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao."

"With limited resources, poverty incidence continues to increase as the population increases," the UN office warned.

Salil Shetty, director of the UN Millenium Campaign, said the series of natural disasters that hit the country had further set back government efforts to reduce, if not eradicate, extreme poverty by 2015.

When interviewed, the visiting US official stressed the need for "disaster-proofing" the MDGs, or integrating disaster risk reduction into government's develoment planning and policies so it could contribute to the achievement of the countrys MDGs.

Shetty also called for "specialized emergency services" for the poor, especially women and children, whom he said were the most vulnerable sector every time calamities strike.

But Shetty said he was confident the government could do all these, noting the Philippines was "better equipped in disaster management than many countries."

So what needs to be done to ensure the attainment of the country's MDGs by 2015?

The Philippines has to "adopt a not business-as-usual policy which means strengthening good governance, demonstrating political will, mobilizing financial support, reorienting priorities and policies, and reaching out to civil society and the private sector as it engages national support."

The country "has the fertile ground to achive the MDGs. It must continue to explore this potential to its fullest and plant the seeds that will yield the best returns, like what civil societies that have successfully lobbied for increases in budget spending on MDG issues, such as health, education and the environment," said the UN office here.