Manila: The Philippines might not be able to comply with the call of the United Nations to reduce the number of HIV and Aids cases in the country, officials said on Thursday.

The call was for the number of cases to be reduced to less than one per cent of the country’s general population in 2015, due to the number of cases rising by 25 per cent, senior officials and non-government leaders said.

“This could happen because the government has been remiss in undertaking a massive information campaign to stop the spread of HIV-Aids. It should have been done five years ago to make the Philippines achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target that HIV-Aids cases should be less than one per cent of a country’s population,” said youth commissioner Percival Cendana on the eve of the observance of the International Aids Candlelight Memorial (IACM) at Manila’s Bonifacio Park on May 16.

The lack of information campaigns has affected two generations of people afflicted with HIV-Aids, Cendana said, adding he has a good reason to be alarmed.

There were 498 new HIV-Aids cases recorded in the first quarter of this year, raising to 1,432 the total number of cases from January to March. Fifty-three of the 498 cases in the first quarter of this year were full blown Aids, which means symptoms began around 10 years ago, Health Secretary Enrique Ona told Gulf News.

This year’s new data also raised to 17,948 cases reported from 1984 to 2014, said Ona.

The Philippine government started monitoring of HIV-Aids (among sex workers) only in 1984. This was allowed by presidential decree signed by former President Ferdinand Marcos.

The 17,948 HIV-Aids cases from 1984 to 2014 is still far from one million, which represents one per cent of the country’s population, statisticians said.

But existing data should be multiplied by 1,000 to find actual estimated cases since there is no law in the Philippines to make HIV-Aids testing mandatory, statisticians said, adding the true and actual estimated HIV-Aids cases in the Philippines from 1984 up to the first quarter of 2014 is 1.794 million cases, a figure that represents almost two per cent of the country’s population.

“The figure arrived at is really alarming,” said one statistician who requested for anonymity because of the sensitivity of his revelations. .

Furthermore, the 498 new cases from January to March this year represents a 35 per cent increase for the same period in 2013. Annual HIV-Aids cases have doubled every two years since 2008, according to the data of the health department.

At the same time, the Philippines is already one of nine countries whose rates of new HIV-Aids cases have grown to more than 25 per cent, said the same data.

Cases were found high in northern Luzon, the National Capital Region (Metro Manila), and central Philippines. But all of a sudden, northern Mindanao has emerged as a new HIV-Aids hot spot because of 30 new cases monitored in the first quarter of 2014, said Dr Evelyn Magsayo, sexually transmitted infection prevention control programme officer of the health department.

A 14-year old boy was found with HIV in the region. The oldest was a 70-year old man, said Magsayo.

Casual sex spurred by social media and mobile phones has been blamed for the growing number of HIV-Aids cases, said leaders of non-government organisations. The IT-assisted sexual encounters have resulted in “hedonistic multiple partners,” they added.

At the same time, only 17 per cent of young people have correct and comprehensive knowledge of HIV-Aids, said the University of the Philippines Population Institute in a survey on sexual practices of young people in 2013.

About 5.4 million engage in premarital sex without protection. Out of 1.4 million involved in casual sex, more than half a million young men have sex with men, the same survey said.

All these data should make government and non-government organisations in the Philippines actively participate in the 31st observation of IACM, one of the world’s longest running groups engaged in mobilisation campaign against the spread of HIV-Aids, said members of the Philippine National Aids Council (PNAC) and National Youth Commission (NYC).

IACM’s theme this year is Let’s Keep the Light on HIV. Candle lighting will be done by various groups in Manila for people who have died of Aids, and for people living with HIV, participants of the event on Friday said.