MANILA – The Depatment of Health (DOH) is allocating P180 million from its fund to procure antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for Filipinos living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
DOH Philippine National AIDS Council program manager, Dr. Jose Gerard Belimac said that the move is a part of the government’s renewed commitment to provide funding for the treatment of persons with the HIV infection.
This is following the Global Fund’s suspension of its grant for the ARV therapy.
“Actually, the pullout of Global Fund has a good implication. It means the government already has a high level of commitment to HIV treatment,” Belimac told reporters on the sidelines of media training on epidemiology in Tarlac City last week.
Global Fund is an organization that helps countries through grants that aids persons with HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
This year, the DOH has recorded a total of 1,182 new HIV/AIDS cases for the months of January to February.
The biggest number ever reported in a month “in the history of HIV in the country” was also reported this February with a total of 646 new cases.
“To simplify the numbers, at least 21 people were infected daily in February,” he said.
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