THE Philippines registered a 78 percent increase in HIV-AIDS cases among teenagers ages 15 to 17 years old from 2019 to 2023. This alarming data drove the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) to call on our country to ramp up its HIV-AIDS response.

Unicef said it recognizes the good work of the Department of Health in preventing the spread of the infection. These include approaches such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, decentralized HIV testing, and the provision of new antiretroviral drugs that improve treatment outcomes and compliance.