MANILA, June 3, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Philippine medical authorities on Tuesday warned of a looming "public health emergency" as HIV infections have soared this year, with young males especially hard-hit.

On average, 57 new cases a day were tallied in the country of 117 million people over the first three months of 2025, a 50 percent jump from a year earlier, health department data shows.

"We now have the highest number of new cases here in the Western Pacific," Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said in a video message released Tuesday.

"What is frightening is, our youth make up many of the new cases," he said.

"It would be in our interest to (declare) a public health emergency, a national emergency for HIV to mobilise the entire society, the whole of government to help us in this campaign to reduce the number of new HIV cases," Herbosa added.

The health department said 95 percent of newly reported cases were male, with 33 percent aged 15-24 and 47 percent aged 25-34.

The government did not explain the causes behind the surge, which it said had set back government attempts to hit global targets set by a United Nations campaign to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Under Philippine law, the president can declare a health emergency if an epidemic poses a threat to national security. The start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 was the last time that was done.

Just 55 percent of those living with HIV in the Philippines have been diagnosed, the health department said, while only 66 percent of those diagnosed are on life-saving antiretroviral therapy.

Sexual contact remains the predominant mode of transmission, with the bulk of cases since 2007 attributed to men having sex with men.

HIV cases have been on the rise in the Philippines since 2021, with 252,800 people estimated to be living with HIV in the country by the end of this year.