Manila: Amid an alarming rise in HIV cases in the country, officials have called for a national public health emergency to combat the disease in the Philippines. The Southeast Asian nation records 57 HIV cases almost daily and has seen a 500% increase in the number of cases among the country’s youth, the state-run Philippines News Agency reported.

According to Anadolu Agency, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa stated that the Philippines ‘now has the highest number of new HIV cases in the Western Pacific Region.’ The latest data indicates that there ‘are 148,831 HIV cases recorded nationwide from 1984 to March this year.’

‘A total of 5,101 cases were logged during the first quarter of this year, higher than the 3,409 recorded during the same period last year,’ the report noted. Herbosa warned, ‘If we’re unable to prevent the increase of HIV cases, we could reach over 400,000 people living with HIV.’

The secretary emphasized the importance of declaring a public health emergency: “It would be good to declare a public health emergency, a national emergency, for HIV because it would encourage the entire society to work together. A whole-of-society and whole-of-government approach can help us in this campaign to reduce new HIV cases,” according to the daily Phil Star.