HIV and TB Overview: Philippines (2024)

At a glance

CDC works with partners in the Philippines to strengthen the country's public health and clinical systems. CDC delivers quality HIV testing and treatment services and responds to emerging public health threats.

Background

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially opened its new country office in Manila, Philippines, in April 2022. In April 2023, the Government of the Philippines granted CDC approval to fully implement its program. This program was implemented under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The Philippines is experiencing the fastest growing HIV epidemic in the Western Pacific region. There was a 411 percent increase in daily HIV incidence between 2012 and 2023. It is also among the countries that have the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB). TB the leading cause of death among people living with HIV (PLHIV).

Through PEPFAR and CDC’s Division of Global HIV & TB (DGHT), CDC Philippines addresses the HIV and TB epidemics. This is done by focusing on key prevention and treatment service delivery gaps in public and community sites. There is also focus on policies to strengthen public health surveillance and laboratory systems in high-burden regions of the Philippines. High-burden regions primarily include Region VI (Western Visayas) and Region VII (Central Visayas) with further implications for the national level.

CDC and its implementing partners collaborate closely with a number of other agencies and organizations. Examples include PEPFAR agencies, the Philippines Department of Health (DOH) and other country government agencies, multilateral organizations, and non-governmental organizations. Other collaborators include stakeholders and civil society. These collaborations work to ensure CDC’s PEPFAR program activities align with the Philippines’ national strategies, priorities, and needs.

HIV and TB data

HIV/AIDS

Tuberculosis (TB)

Key activities and accomplishments

Strengthening public health and HIV testing, treatment, and retention services

CDC Philippines implements comprehensive, evidence-based prevention services and targeted HIV testing interventions. These services and interventions are tailored to people at higher risk of HIV, including community-based index testing and social network strategy. CDC Philippines supports pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) demand creation.

CDC Philippines leveraged CDC HQ HIV treatment expertise through evidence-based HIV treatment symposiums for regional and national infectious diseases stakeholders. The goal was to optimize comprehensive HIV care and treatment among young men who have sex with men living with HIV.

Strengthening laboratory systems and networks

CDC-Philippines provided technical leadership to contribute to DOH’s plan to scale-up the number of rapid HIV diagnostic algorithm certified testing sites. This plan aimed to rapidly scale up the number of sites from 40 to 1300 nationwide by the end of 2023.

CDC Philippines conducted training in 2023 on Rapid Test for Recent Infection (RTRI) for almost 700 health workers. Thirty-six facilities have also been activated for RTRI. RTRI can improve our understanding of the HIV epidemic by demonstrating shifting dynamics in the HIV epidemic over time. This allows public health officials and providers to identify HIV transmission hotspots and target HIV testing and prevention strategies.

CDC Philippines provides technical leadership and funding for the Multi-Disease Network Optimization project. This support helps improve the performance efficiency and reliability of the Philippines DOH’s laboratory network infrastructure. This in turn affects HIV and TB diagnosis, treatment, and retention.

Strengthening disease surveillance and health information systems

CDC-Philippines co-led bio-behavioral surveillance and population size estimation workshops to increase the data triangulation capacity of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau. This was done as a gap analysis to estimate how many people need HIV diagnosis and testing in Regions 6 & 7.

The national reporting platform in the Philippines is the One HIV, AIDS, and STI Information System (OHASIS). Further analyses of the data sources along with OHASIS will provide unique analytical perspectives on the HIV epidemic and the response. This includes the assessment of barriers and facilitators among MSM and transgender women. Additionally, it provides perspective on the correlates of mortality among PLHIV in the last 12 months. This has implications for public health policies and programmatic biomedical interventions necessary to achieve 95-95-95.

CDC Philippines is providing support to 36 health facilities to implement strategic information and quality improvement/quality assurance activities. This support strengthens performance management and improves data quality. The support also improves programs by training health facilities on how to utilize online data dashboards to improve HIV cascade.

Scaling the HIV response sustainably by forging transformative partnerships

CDC Philippines uses peer navigators for linkage to care from CSO community-based testing sites. CDC supported peer navigators help to promote messaging for U=U (Undetectable=Untransmittable) and stigma reduction for people at higher risk of HIV. CDC Philippines is building management capacity of locally formed KP and PLHIV led community-based organizations. The goal is to enable them to receive future Philippines local government funding.

Resources

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