Philippines records one new HIV case every 2 hours

ONE new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) case is recorded in the Philippines every two hours this year, a Department of Health (DOH) official said Tuesday.

“This year, there is one new HIV case reported every two hours,” said DOH spokesman Dr. Eric Tayag in his Twitter account.

According to the June 2013 Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry Report, 431 new cases of HIV, the highest number of cases reported in a month since 1984, was recorded in the country last month.

The report released by the DOH – National Epidemiology Center (NEC) noted that the June 2013 statistics is 46 percent higher compared to the same period as last year, which had 295 cases.

Of the new cases, 17 have progressed already to full blown Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) cases, said the report.

Sexual transmission remains to be top source of new HIV cases with 387. Males-having-sex-with-males (MSM) accounted for 88 percent or 340 cases.

Homosexual sex produced 202 cases followed by 138 bisexual sex cases. Heterosexual sex resulted to 47 new HIV cases.

On the other hand, 43 new HIV cases came from injecting drug use. One case of mother-to-child transmission was also reported.

For the first half of this year, there are already 2,323 new HIV cases with 120 full-blown AIDS cases.

Since 1984, 14,025 HIV cases have been reported in the country including 1,289 AIDS cases. (HDT/Sunnex)