(Update) HARP Data Show Rise in HIV-Positive IDUs in First Quarter of 2017

The number of injecting drug users (IDUs) who have tested positive for HIV has steadily risen from January to March this year.

According to data provided by the HIV/AIDS and ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP), the number of patients who acquired the virus from needle-sharing increased from 16 last January to 19 in February and 22 in March. This brings to 57 the total number of such cases in the first quarter of the year and to 1,789 from ‬January ‬1984 when AIDS was first detected in the country‭ ‬to ‭‬March‭ ‬2017.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Three IDUs who tested positive for HIV in January, one in February, and three in March belonged to the 15-24 age group.

HARP also reported a spike in transmission through the sharing of infected needles from less than 1 percent in the 1984-2009 period, to 9 percent (147 cases) of the total cases reported in 2010, before declining to less than 6 percent ‬of the total cases in the succeeding years. ‭ ‬‬‬‬

From January 1984 until last March, 2,124 died of AIDS, 43 of whom were injecting drug users.

In a recent interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), program manager of the Dangerous Drugs Abuse Program of the Department of Health (DOH), Dr. Jasmin Peralta, said drug abusers run the risk of contracting communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, by sharing needles when they inject drugs and by engaging in risky sexual behavior, such as having multiple partners and unprotected sex.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 13 million people across the world inject drugs and 1.7 million of them are living with HIV. It said injecting drug use accounts for approximately 10 percent of HIV infections globally. (LSJ/PNA)