Number of new HIV cases in May highest monthly rate since 1984 — DOH

The number of new HIV cases in the Philippines in May this year is highest monthly rate since 1984, the Department of Health said in an advisory.

At least 415 new HIV-positive cases were recorded in May, 52 percent higher than the 273 new cases in same month last year, according to the DOH’s HIV and AIDS registry.

Health assistant secretary and spokesperson Eric Tayag in his Twitter account said: “this is the highest monthly number of new HIV cases ever.”

This brings the total number of reported cases to 13,594 since the registry was put up in 1984.

HIV or the human immunodeficiency virus causes a condition called AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), an incurable symptom of failing immune system which eventually leads to death.

Of the new cases recorded in May, 398 or 96 percent were men, while only 17 or four percent were women. Around 99 of those infected were 15 to 24 years old.

At least 409 cases were caused by sexual contact while only six by needle-sharing among drug users, the DOH said.

Around eight out of 10 HIV cases were caused by men having sex with other men, according to the registry.

A little over half or 53 percent of HIV cases were recorded in the National Capital Region, followed by Region IV-A at 13 percent, Region XI at 10 percent, Region III at eight percent, and Region VII at four percent.

Sexual contact is the leading cause of HIV, with 12,649 or 93 percent of total cases recorded. HIV cases due to needle-sharing is at 488, mother-to-child transmission at 59, blood transfusion 20, and needle prick injury three cases.

Metro Manila has the most number of HIV cases since 1984 at 6,385 or about half of the total 13,594. A total of 1,586 cases came from Region IV-A, followed by 1,053 from Region III, 1,034 from Region VII, and 743 from Region II.

People living with AIDS – the highest stage of the HIV – numbered at 103 last May. Since 1984, the number of Filipinos Filipinos with AIDS numbered at 1,272.

At least 774 have reportedly died due to the virus, 76 percent or 589 were men. Meanwhile, 81 deaths involved the youth aged 15 to 24 years old while 15 deaths involved children.

The health department noted that death due to HIV started an uptick since 2011, when 69 died of HIV. In 2012, reported deaths increased to 177.

A total of 65 deaths were recorded from January to May this year.

The health department is now attending to 4,115 people living with HIV who are on anti-retroviral therapy to suppress the effects of HIV, DOH said.

This comes at a time when the World Health Organization has issued new guidelines on requiring anti-retroviral therapy, Reuters reported.

WHO said people living with HIV should start getting treatment as soon as their CD4 cell count – or the number of white-blood cells that fight infection – falls to 500 cells per cubic millimeter or less.

Before, the WHO is recommending anti-retroviral therapy when CD4 cell count falls at 350 or less.

Their new standards could save three million more lives worldwide by 2025, it said. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab /LBG, GMA News