May ’17 HIV Cases Highest in More Than 30 Years

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said that the number of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the country for the month of May was over 1,000 and majority, or 37 percent or 404 of which is in the National Capital Region (NCR).

This was disclosed in the May 2017 HIV and AIDS Registry of the Philippines (HARP) which showed that there were 1,098 new HIV cases recorded.

Image Source: PNA

“This is the highest recorded cases ever since 1984,” said the DOH report.

The figure surpassed the previous high of 968 new HIV cases recorded just last March.

The cases was 48 percent higher compared to the same period last year, which was at 741.

In NCR, the number of cases totaled to 404.

Of the newly recorded HIV cases, a total of 140 turned to full-blown acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases.

The report also said that there were 15 deaths from HIV/AIDS reported on the same month.

Still, sexual contact continues to be the top mode of transmission with 1,068.

Most of which are from the male-having-sex-with-male (MSM) population totaling to 1,041 or comprising 95 percent.

More than half of them were from the 25-34 age group while 30 percent of them were youth whose age ranges from 15-24.

Twenty-seven of the cases were listed due to injecting drug use mode.

Three cases were recorded as mother-to-child transmission.

Meanwhile, 8 pregnant women were also diagnosed wherein 3 of them were from NCR, 2 from Region 3 and 1 each from Regions 4A, 7 and 9.

For the first five months, the DOH has already reported a total of 4,388 new HIV cases, including 516 AIDS cases, and 187 deaths.

Since 1984, a total of there are already 44,010 HIV cases, including 4,181 AIDS cases, and 2,156 deaths.(PNA)