HIV found in 25 Filipinos every day, report shows

by Macon Ramos-Araneta, the Standard, July 18, 2016

AROUND 25 Filipinos were diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus daily as the total number of these cases had risen to 34,158 since January 1984 following the recorded 3,802 new cases from January to May 2016.

The latest HIV/AIDS Registry of the Philippines or HARP report showed 739 new HIV cases were reported in May 2016.

Out of the 739 cases, 106 developed into full-blown acquired immune deficiency virus cases and 52 died of AIDS in May.

Among the 739 new cases, 687 (93 percent) happened through sexual transmission, and mostly from men-having-sex-with-men, which accounted for 589 cases or 86 percent.

Homosexual contact was responsible for 357 cases, followed by bisexual contact with 232 cases and 98 cases from heterosexual contact.

Injecting drug use accounted for the transmission of 50 new cases, while two others were cases of mother-to-child transmissions.

Fifty-six of the new cases were found to be migrant Filipino workers who were infected through sexual transmission.

Since 1984, 3,070 AIDS cases and 1,759 deaths from the total of 34,158 HIV cases have been recorded in the Philippines.

Genesis Samonte, Epidemiology Program Manager of the Health Department, raised the alarm on the increasing number of cases.

He said iån 2008 only one person was getting infected daily, but the number had surged to 17 per day by 2014.

“Our neighbors in Asia have seen a decrease in new cases and we’re the only one—along with Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan—increasing in HIV prevalence,” she said.

She said the problem could even get worse since the statistics were based only on who got tested.

“This is an underestimate of people who actually have HIV because some refuse to be tested or do not know where and how to get tested, especially in the urban areas,” Samonte said.