DOH reports 19 new HIV cases

MANILA, Philippines – Nineteen overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) last February, bringing to 159 the number of new cases for the month, a report of the Department of Health (DOH) showed.

The Philippine HIV and AIDS Surveillance Registry showed that all 19 OFWs –15 males and four females – acquired the infection through sexual contact.

The DOH monitored 311 cases from January to February, 36 of them OFWs.

Government health records showed that from Jan. 1984 to Feb. 2011, 6,326 HIV cases were recorded. Of these, 863 progressed into AIDS; 324 died from the disease.

Since 1984, 20 new cases were caused by transfusion of contaminated blood. Last February, another case was recorded, the first in six years.

Sexual contact is still the most common mode of transmission, accounting for 92 percent of cases. From 2007, however, the predominant mode of sexual transmission shifted from heterosexual contact to homosexual contact, particularly among men having sex with men.

Last year, the DOH diagnosed new cases among injecting drug users in Cebu City. –Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star)