January-May HIV/AIDS cases surpass 2,000 mark

MANILA, Philippines - Barely five months into the year, the number of new HIV/AIDS cases recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) has surpassed the 2,000 mark.

In its Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry, the DOH said there were 495 new cases, including 44 full-blown AIDS, last May, bringing the total number of cases since January to 2,320.

This also raised to 18,863 the total number of cases since the registry started in 1984, including 1,724 AIDS cases and 992 deaths.

Of the new cases, 465 got the infection through sexual contacts, and 30 through shared needles during illegal drug use, the DOH said. 

“Males having sex with other males (85 percent) was the predominant type of sexual transmission,” it said.

Homosexual contacts accounted for 252 cases; bisexual contacts, 145 cases; and heterosexual contacts, 68 cases.

Forty-three percent of the new cases were from Metro Manila, while Calabarzon had 14 percent; Central Visayas, nine percent; Central Luzon, eight percent; and Davao region, seven percent.

The HIV and AIDS Registry showed that of the 2,320 cases this year, 2,171 were infected through sexual contacts, 148 through needle sharing among drug users, and one through mother-to-child transmission. Deaths have reached six, including one belonging to the 15-24 age bracket.

“There were 2,083 males and 88 females infected through sexual transmission. The age range of those infected through sexual transmission was 17-80 years old,” the DOH added.

The registry showed that overseas Filipino workers comprised 265 of this year’s cases and all of them acquired HIV through sexual contact.

Homosexual contacts also accounted for majority of the infections with 106 cases, followed by heterosexual contacts with 95 cases, and bisexual contacts with 64 cases.