Western Visayas records 126 new HIV cases in first five months of 2015

The Provincial Health Office in Aklan has recorded 126 new cases of HIV in the Western Visayas in the first five months of 2015, bringing the total number of cases to 890 in the region since 1984.

The number includes the region’s second case of HIV involving a child below 15 years old.

The office also tallied 23 HIV-related deaths in the same time period.

The highest number of new cases from January 2013 to May 2015 was recorded in May 2015 with 33 new cases in a month. This number is an a 183-percent increase from 18 in May 2014.

“In May 2015, every 22 and a half hours, a person is diagnosed with HIV in Western Visayas,” said the office’s latest report.

Of the 33 new cases, 31 are males.

The accumulated data from 1984 also showed that HIV/AIDS is most prevalent among males with a total number of cases of 804, while HIV cases among females are only 85.

HIV/AIDS in the region were also most prevalent in homosexual relationships, with 358 cases recorded from 1986 to May 2015. There have also been 263 cases of HIV-infected bisexual individuals and 261 cases of infected heterosexual individuals.

Other modes of transmission, according to the provincial health office, are:

Bisexual – 263
Heterosexual – 261
Perinatal – 2
Transfusion – 1
Unknown – 5

Most of those who tested positive since 1984 were between 24-34 years old

Is tourism the culprit?

Western Visayas is one of the tourism hubs in the country with Boracay Island at its core.

Kalibo, one of the main gateways to Boracay, received the third biggest arrivals of tourists in the country in May 2015. It has welcomed 34,933 visitors who arrived by air alone.

Local health officials are not ruling out the effect of growing tourism as one of the culprits in the growing number of HIV cases in the region.

But Nenita Dalde, the OIC of the National Advocacy and Policy Development Unit of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, said that tourism does not really have a direct impact on the number of HIV cases.

“We would say that the behavior of an individual defines his vulnerability to HIV infections. It’s not really whether an area is a center of tourism or not,” she said in an interview with GMA News TV’s Balitanghali.

In May 2015, the Philippines hit its highest recorded number of HIV/AIDS cases per month at 748. From January to May 2015, new cases rose to over 3,000.

The number of HIV/AIDS cases has been steadily rising since 2008. — Trisha Macas/JDS, GMA News

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