Nearly 12% of new HIV patients in PHL were OFWs — solon

Nearly 12 percent of some 196 new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients in the Philippines in August were overseas Filipino workers (OFws), a lawmaker said.

In a news release, LPG Marketers’ Association (LPG-MA) party-list Rep. Arnel Ty, said the new number of HIV patients was 81 percent higher than the 108 new cases in the same month in 2010.

The new HIV patients included 23 OFWs — 18 males and five females, Ty said.

The new HIV infections in August this year was slightly lower than the record number of 204 new infections reported in July.

Ty, who has been pushing for highly aggressive measures to suppress HIV, said “At the rate new infections are soaring, we are easily looking at 200 new cases monthly for the rest of the year, 330 new cases monthly by 2012, and 550 new cases monthly by 2013.”

Ty and four of his colleagues recently filed a bill seeking to enhance the country’s AIDS Prevention and Control Law.

Citing National Epidemiology Center (NEC) data, Ty said 182 of the 196 new HIV patients in August were males while 14 were females.

Their median age was 28 years. Those in the 20 to 29 age group comprised 57 percent of the cases.

He said 55 percent (or 108) of the 196 new HIV cases were detected in Metro Manila.

The number of HIV cases reported in August brought to 1,416 the total number of HIV cases discovered in the first eight months of this year, Ty said.

AIDS deaths

HIV causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). There is no known cure yet for the disease.

Ty noted four more AIDS patients – one female and three males — with a median age of 35 years – passed away in August.

The four deaths brought to 13 the known deaths this year due to AIDS which ravages the human body’s immune system, Ty said.

The National HIV and AIDS Registry lists an aggregate of 7,431 cases, including 930 with full-blown AIDS.

Ty said 337 of those with full-scale AIDS, or 36 percent, have passed away.

Mode of infection

Ty said 91 percent (or 6,787) of all the cases in the National HIV and AIDS Registry were infected as a result of unprotected sexual contact.

The rest were infected via contaminated needle sharing among drug users, mother-to-child conveyance, tainted blood transfusion, needle prick injuries, or had no reported mode of transmission.

Ty said 142 units of voluntarily donated blood were found HIV-positive from January to August this year, higher by 51 percent compared to the 94 units found tainted over the same period in 2010.

“This is just another indication of the creeping surge of HIV – that we have potentially other cases out there that remain undetected,” he said.

The NEC has stressed that none of the tainted blood units were used.

Up to 46,000 Filipinos could be diagnosed with HIV by 2015, unless the spread of the contagious disease is effectively checked, the Philippine National AIDS Council has warned.

Dr. Edsel Salvana, a specialist in infectious disease medicine, earlier said at the rate new cases are being discovered, the Philippine government could be spending P1 billion yearly by 2015, just to procure the anti-retroviral drugs needed to treat Filipinos with HIV.

Although there is no cure for the disease, it may be slowed using expensive treatments, Ty said. – VVP, GMA News