AT LEAST 22 Filipinos contract the deadly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) each day, up from 17 just a year ago, the Department of Health said Sunday.
Since 2008, the number has sharply risen from only one case a day to four cases a day in 2010. It went up to nine a day in 2012 and 17 a day in 2014.
There were 772 new HIV cases recorded last June, according to the HIV/Aids Registry of the Philippines.
This was 56 percent higher compared to the same period last year (494 cases).
Of the 772 new cases, 33 have progressed already to full-blown acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids) cases.
Sixty-two people died last June, said the DOH.
The number of HIV infections has reached 3,929 in just the first half of the year, with 238 already developing into Aids cases and 156 deaths.
Since 1984, there are already 26,456 HIV cases recorded in the country, including 2,287 Aids cases and 1,274 deaths.
In June, 737 cases (95.46 percent) were acquired through sexual transmission, mostly from the men-having-sex-with-men (MSM) population, which accounted for 661 cases or 87 percent.
Homosexual contact was responsible for 393 cases followed by bisexual contact with 268 cases and 76 cases from heterosexual contact.
Injecting drug use (IDU) accounted for eight cases.
More than one-third (38 percent) or 294 new HIV cases in June came from the National Capital Region (NCR); followed by 124 (16 percent) in Calabarzon; 62 (8 percent) in Davao Region; 61 (8 percent) in Central Luzon; and 41 (5 percent) in Central Visayas.
A total of 64 new cases were reported among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with all but one coming from sexual transmission.
The other one came from IDU. (HDT/Sunnex)
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