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Philippines faces HIV epidemic: report

Xinhua, December 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is spreading very quickly in the Philippines and the country faces an epidemic, said a report released Thursday by Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization headquartered in New York.

"The Philippines is facing one of the fastest-growing epidemics in the Asia-Pacific region," the report said in an online report.

According to official statistics, HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men has increased tenfold in the last five years, the report noted.

Overall HIV prevalence rate in Cebu City of the Philippines was 15 percent in 2015, tripling the figure for sub-Saharan Africa that suffers the most serious HIV epidemic in the world.

The human rights watchdog gave credit to the Philippine government in preventing HIV transmission among commercial sex workers in the 1990s, but said it failed to prevent HIV infection in other risk groups.

Human Rights Watch listed limited condom access, insufficient education, few public access to HIV testing, as well as the influence of the Catholic Church on government, as several reasons leading to the current epidemic.

"By removing legal and policy obstacles to condom access and remedying the dangerous deficit in public awareness of safer sex and HIV prevention methods, the Philippine government would have the opportunity to stop a growing health crisis in its tracks," the report said. Endi