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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has gone from having one of the lowest estimated rates of new HIV infections among adolescents in Southeast Asia in 2000 to recording the region’s highest estimated incidence in 2025, according to newly released Unicef data.
The estimated incidence of new HIV infections among Filipinos ages 15 to 19 reached 0.49 per 1,000 uninfected adolescents in 2025, up from below 0.01 per 1,000 in 2000, based on Unicef’s Key HIV epidemiology indicators for children and adolescents aged 0–19, 2000–2025.
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The figures were analyzed by University of the Philippines Diliman associate professor and Inquirer data scientist Dr. Rogelio Alicor Panao, who noted that the Philippines’ trajectory was markedly different from those of several Southeast Asian countries that started with higher estimated adolescent HIV incidence.
