Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor on Sunday said the Department of Health would eventually spend some P1 billion every year for the antiretroviral therapy of the increasing number of Filipinos living with the human immunodeficiency virus.
“Right now, the DoH is already spending around P478 million every year for the 38,279 Filipinos living with HIV and actually undergoing life-saving ART,” he said.
“The amount is likely to balloon to P1 billion annually by 2022 as more Filipinos living with HIV emerge and seek treatment,” he added.
The cost of a single course of treatment for one HIV patient per year would range P12,500 to P15,000.
“We assume that some 10,000 new HIV cases will be discovered annually over the next three years, and that the DoH will succeed in getting 90 percent of them to undergo ART,” Defensor said.
“The 10,000 is a fair estimate, considering that based on DoH data, an annual average of 10,588 new HIV cases were diagnosed countrywide between 2016 and 2018,” he added.
From January to May, another 5,366 new HIV cases were reported nationwide, based on the DoH’s National HIV and AIDS Registry.
“Congress is absolutely committed to find ways to help the DOH achieve its 90-90-90 target in fighting HIV,” the party-list lawmaker said.
The health department eyes to diagnose 90 percent of all HIV cases, treat 90 percent of those detected and to suppress the virus in 90 percent of those receiving treatment.
“We would also urge not just the DoH but also provincial, city and municipal health offices in regions with high HIV concentrations to invest more aggressively in preventive programs,” Defensor said.