HIV cases in RP quintuple in 2009

WHILE the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Asia was already tagged as “largely stable” as of 2009, a United Nations agency report named the Philippines as among the exceptions as the prevalence of the disease grew five times to 8,700 from just 1,700 in 2001.

There are around 4.9 million people living with HIV in Asia last year — about the same as the 4.2 million estimated eight years earlier — with most of the countries in the region either registering lower incidence or just had an increase of less than 25%, data released by the UNAIDS late last month showed.

The report, published prior to the commemoration of the World Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Awareness Day on December 1, however, cited the Philippines along with Bangladesh as among those whose HIV incidence has increased by 25% or more.

The incidence of HIV in Bangladesh grew almost five times to 6,300 last year from 1,100 in 2001.

The UN agency’s estimate for the Philippines during the nine-year period, meanwhile, was higher than the Department of Health’s tally. The government recorded 5,625 total cases from 1984 to September this year.

In 2009 alone, the UNAIDS estimated around 2,100 newly infected cases and less than 200 AIDS-related deaths.

The prevalence of the disease remained concentrated among adults aged over 15 years — 1,000 of the total estimates were cases involving children.

Nonetheless, the UN estimate of HIV prevalence in the Philippines among adults as of last year still accounted for a minimal 1% of the adult population, same as in 2001.

In a research note published this month, the United Kingdom-based international HIV and AIDS charity AVERT attributed the low prevalence of the disease to various efforts to screen and treat people selling sex since the early 1990s.

AVERT, however, cautioned that “there are reasons to believe that this [low-prevalence] situation may not last,” citing in particular the declaration of the Department of Health early this year that the “country is now on the brink of a ‘concentrated epidemic’ due to a rise in prevalence.”

Concentrated epidemic means a rise in the incidence of HIV among the most-at-risk population which includes sex workers, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users.

“Condom use is not the norm in paid sex, drug users commonly share injecting equipment in some areas, and among Filipino youth, there is evidence of complacency about AIDS,” AVERT added.

The UNAIDS said epidemics in the Asian region were common among people who inject drugs, sex workers and their clients, and men who have sex with men.

In the Philippine case, data from the Health department showed that of the 5,625 cumulative total cases reported, 89% were infected through sexual contact, 1% through mother-to-child transmission and 3% through needle sharing among injecting drug users. — Gloria Krisana L. Gallezo, Businessworld