End HIV, Act for Equality para sa Healthy Pilipinas.

World AIDS Day takes place on 1 December each year. This important awareness day is an opportunity for people to unite globally in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV (PLHIV), and to honor the lives of those lost to AIDS-related illnesses. On this day, we also renew our commitment to supporting the well-being of those with HIV, as well as those at risk for infection while reflecting on the worldwide response to HIV and AIDS.

Data from UNAIDS on the global HIV response reveals that during the last two years of COVID-19 and other global crises, progress to end HIV has been faltering, resources have been shrinking, and inequalities have been widening. As a result, millions of lives are at risk. Four decades into the HIV response, inequalities still persist for the most basic services like testing, treatment, and condoms, and even more so for new technologies.

Highlighting the importance of health promotion in HIV response, the Department of Health along with the Philippine National AIDS Council, supports the mandate of World AIDS Day to commemorate the challenges and triumphs in our fight against HIV and AIDS. With the theme, “End HIV, Act for Equality para sa isang Healthy Pilipinas”, The 2022 Philippines World AIDS Day aims to contribute to the global goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. It calls for bold, urgent action to promote rights-based, community-led, and evidence-based HIV services, including combination prevention, sexual and reproductive health services, HIV testing, treatment, care and support.

The theme also emphasizes accountability and action, affirming the country’s participation in the Global AIDS Strategy (2021-2026) that seeks to reduce the inequalities by 2025 that drive the AIDS epidemic. To realize the vision of zero new infection, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related death, we must ACT holistically for equality to address the epidemiological, socioeconomic, cultural, and legal determinants of HIV. In a pandemic, inequalities exacerbate the dangers for everyone. Indeed, the end of AIDS can only be achieved if we tackle the inequalities which drive it.

Our work is not finished. Our fight against HIV goes on since the first cases of HIV and AIDS were diagnosed forty years ago. Globally, 38.4 million people were living with HIV (PLHIV) at the end of 2021. In the Asia and Pacific Region, the Philippines has the fastest-growing HIV epidemic, with a 237% increase in annual new HIV infections from 2010 to 2020. In the same period, AIDS-related deaths have increased by 315%. Further, if the rapid increase in new infections is sustained, the estimated number of PLHIV will triple to 330,000 by 2030.

This year’s theme recognizes that equal worth and dignity of every person is critical for ending AIDS. Equal access to HIV services and the full protection of human rights must be realized for all people. The time has come to act for equality para sa Healthy Pilipinas.