The Department of Health (DOH) is seeking the support of the Department of Education (DepEd) to ramp up safe sex education among the youth, who are most at risk to the rapid spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the country.

“I actually had a meeting with [Vice President] Sara Duterte, [DepEd)] Secretary Sara, kasi we need to educate our youth,” DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa was quoted as saying. However, it was not made clear if the secretary was referring to a new meeting or to the meeting held in November 2023.

Herbosa said the Philippines is the “highest in the world” in HIV cases, with 55 new infections reported daily.

With a 174% increase since 2010, a UNAIDS report found a rapidly growing HIV epidemic in the Philippines, which placed fifth in terms of new infections in 2018 in the Asia and the Pacific region.

A separate HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP) report by the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau showed the vulnerability of the youth to the epidemic. Young people aged 15-24 years old accounted for 29% of the total 117,946 cases reported from January 1984 to June 2023.

“That’s why we need to stop,” Herbosa said.

Herbosa said the DOH is also looking to allow minors with HIV to obtain treatment with the consent of a doctor or the guardian, as well as allow open the distribution of the treatment to the private sector.