500 new HIV cases in PH in 1 month

MANILA, Philippines – Almost 500 new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections were documented in November 2014, two-thirds of whom were aged 15 to 24 and mostly infected through sexual contact, records of the Department of Health (DOH) showed yesterday.

Based on the registry prepared by the DOH’s National Epidemiology Center, there were 492 new cases of HIV, including 40 cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). A total of 134 of them were aged 15 to 24. There were 10 deaths.

The DOH said the 492 cases are 28 percent higher than the 384 cases recorded in November 2013.

Sexual contact accounted for 464 cases and 250 of them were due to homosexual contact and 146 due to bisexual contact. Twenty-eight cases were injecting drug users who shared infected needles.

“Males having sex with other males (85 percent) was the predominant type of sexual transmission… Eighty-three of the new HIV cases came from the National Capital Region, Region 4-A, Region 2 and Region 11,” the DOH said.

The new cases brought to 5,502 the number of cases since January this year and to 22,018 since 1984.

Records showed that 20,519 cases were infected through sexual contact; 1,035 through needle sharing among injecting drug users; 66 through mother-to-child transmission; 20 through blood transfusion and three through needle prick injury.

Of the 22,018 cases, 2,011 developed AIDS while 1,101 have died. A total of 5,750 of them belonged to the 15 to 24 age group, while 69 were below 15 years old. –Sheila Crisostomo, The Philippine Star