Philippines expects 8,000 new HIV cases this year

MANILA, May 6 (Xinhua) — The Philippine Department of Health ( DOH) said on Wednesday that it expects some 8,000 new HIV/AIDS cases to be recorded by the end of this year.

Paulyn Ubial, DOH assistant secretary, said the department came to the estimation because the number of the country’s new HIV/ AIDS cases has been increasing annually by 20 percent.

“It is very alarming because all the country in Southeast Asia are actually reversing the trend. But in the Philippines, the number of cases is increasing,” she said.

Citing the DOH’s HIV/AIDS registry, Ubial said there were only around 500 new HIV/AIDS cases in 2008 or one case per day. In 2010, there were four cases every day, nine new cases in 2012 daily and 20 new cases in February this year.

To get a clear picture of the HIV/AIDS situation, the DOH called for a more vigorous voluntary HIV testing from May 11 to 15, which is dubbed as “National HIV Testing Week.”