Paid sex to blame for most HIV cases in October 2017

BY KENNETH HARE HERNANDEZ, Manila Times, Jan 11, 2018

Paid sex was behind most of the 918 cases of Filipinos found to be carrying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in October 2017.

These cases brought to 9,217 the partial total for last year of the number of Filipino HIV carriers, according to the Department of Health (DoH)-Epidemiology Bureau.

They made for an average of 31 recorded a day, the HIV and AIDS Registry of the Philippines report of the DoH said.

Among the newly-reported cases are 129 suffering from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

There were 41 deaths from HIV/AIDS in the same month.

Sexual contact continued to be the main mode of transmission with 873, most of which involved men-having-sex-with-men (MSM) with 753.

Homosexual contact had the highest number with 528, followed by bisexual contact with 228, while heterosexual contact led to 117 cases.

The report identified 116 individuals who acquired HIV through paid or transactional sex.

It said 65 men were infected after they paid for sex.

Twenty-nine men, on the other hand, acquired HIV after accepting payment for sex.

There were also 35 cases of infection acquired through injected drug use, one case of mother-to-child transmission and four cases had no data.

Majority of the cases were recorded in Metro Manila with 323, followed by Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) with 153, Central Luzon with 110, Central Visayas with 81 and 179 from various parts of the country.

A total of 70 overseas Filipino workers were also found to have acquired HIV/AIDS, the majority of whom were infected through sexual contact.

From January to October 2017, the DoH reported a total of 9,217 HIV cases, including 1,150 AIDS cases, and 415 deaths.

Since 1984, there have been 48,839 HIV cases, including 4,815 AIDS cases, and 2,384 deaths.