Drug users now most at risk for HIV – DOH

MANILA, Philippines –  The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that injecting drug users are emerging as the newest group contributing heavily to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country.

In a press briefing highlighting yesterday’s first “2010 HIV Summit,” DOH chief epidemiologist Dr. Eric Tayag said the mode of spreading the AIDS virus had shifted from unprotected heterosexual transmission to males-having-sex-with-males (MSM) in the past years.

But this year, he noted the DOH had observed “a growing or accelerated increase of HIV infection among injecting drug users.”

Citing the DOH’s Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry, Tayag claimed that from January to March this year, a total of 68 injecting drug users tested positive for HIV. Records showed that 13 of the 68 cases, who all came from Region 7 or Cebu, were reported last month.

Cebu is among the three places being monitored for its high incidence of HIV/AIDS cases. The other two are Metro Manila and Metro Davao but the primary mode of transmission of HIV in these areas is MSM.

According to Tayag, the 68 new cases are a cause for alarm since there were only seven cases of HIV among injecting drug users from 1984 to 2006 while there was one in 2008. There was no such a case in 2007 and 2009.

He blamed the practice of sharing needles among drug users for the fast spread of the AIDS virus. He estimated some four to 10 drug users get exposed to an infected needle.

“We now see an accelerated increase of HIV infection among injecting drug users. But it is not as simple as that. There is downstream infection,” he added.

Tayag said that HIV infection among injecting drug users intertwines with other “most at risk population” like the commercial sex workers and MSM.

“There are commercial sex workers among injecting drug users, there are injecting drug users who are clients of sex workers. There are injecting drug users who are MSM,” he added.

And what is more alarming is that injecting drug users were observed to have the “least knowledge” about HIV/ AIDS, Tayag said, noting that condom use among them was also low.

Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (Unaids) country coordinator Teresita Marie Bagasao warned that HIV spreads more rapidly among injecting drug users “through sharing of needles. The rate is actually faster than sexual transmission.” She added that it might take four to five years before anti-HIV/AIDS efforts make a dent and “it will get worse before it gets better.”

DOH records showed that last month, 120 new HIV cases were recorded and 13 of them were injecting drug users who re-used needles. This was 103 percent higher compared to the same period in 2009.

The new cases bring to 4,817 the number of HIV cases in the country. A total of 838 of them have progressed into AIDS while 314 have already died.

The records showed that of the 4,817 cases, 4,305 were infected through sexual contact, 50 through mother-to-child transmission and 76 through needle sharing among injecting drug users.

Meanwhile, health officials in Cagayan Valley reported that five persons tested positive for HIV in the region for this year. DOH regional director Dr. Tita Callueng refused to give any more details about the five HIV-positive persons due to “sensitive issues.” -–Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) with Charlie Lagasca