HIV cases in Philippines may reach 4,000 this year

339 new infections recorded for February, including 45 OFWs

HIV ( human immunodeficiency virus) cases in the Philippines are expected to reach over 4,000 this year, following the 339 fresh infections recorded for February and 380 in January.

Party-List Representative Arnel Ty said the February figure was 24 per cent higher compared with the 274 cases of HIV recorded a year ago.

“We foresee passive discovery of around 4,300 new HIV infections this year, based on the initial trend,” he said in a statement on Tuesday, noting that 719 new HIV cases were discovered from January to February.

These fresh infections have brought the total to 12,241 cases, 93 per cent or 11,520 of which had acquired the virus through sexual contact, recorded in the National HIV and AIDS Registry. The latter started its passive surveillance of the disease from 1984.

Ty said the HIV cases recorded last February involved 327 males and 12 females having a median age of 27, with those in the age brackets of 20 to 29 accounting for 60 per cent. The February record also included 45 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who came home suffering from the virus.

World Health Organisation earlier said the Philippines was one of the countries with the highest growth rates of HIV worldwide, along with Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.