Anakalusugan Representative Mike Defensor said Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting the Philippines’ fight against the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome as less Filipinos are being tested for human immunodeficiency virus .Defensor, a vice chairman of the House health committee, raised concern that the decline in the number of HIV cases meant more individuals who may be infected with HIV but are not diagnosed.
Citing National AIDS Registry from the Department of Health , Defensor noted that only 934 new HIV cases were detected in the country from April to June 2020, at the height of lockdowns imposed by the government to curb the COVID-19 transmission.Overall, from January to September this year, only 5,627 new HIV cases were diagnosed, down by 42 percent from the 9,749 discovered in the same period in 2019, the congressman noted.
“Thus, we may have a larger number of undiagnosed and untreated individuals out there contributing to the spread of HIV, mainly through sexual contact, without them knowing it,” he warned. Currently, there is no known cure for the virus. Once people get HIV, they have it for life, the CDC said in its website.
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