109 new HIV/AIDS cases recorded last month

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health recorded 109 new cases in its Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry last month, the DOH said yesterday.

Though only one of the 109 was a full-blown AIDS case, the total figure is 173 percent higher than the 40 cases recorded in June 2009.

“Of the 109 individuals reported, 18 were detected from voluntary counseling and testing as part of the ongoing community outreach activities... 42 percent (46) of the reported cases were from the National Capital Region,” the DOH said.

The rise in HIV/AIDS cases started three years ago due to unsafe sexual practices of the men-having-sex-with-men (MSM) sector, which includes not only gays but straight men as well, according to the DOH.

But during the first quarter of 2010, the DOH was alarmed after finding 68 HIV cases among injecting drug users in Cebu City. Eventually, more HIV-positive injecting drug users were monitored in 11 other towns and cities in Cebu province.

DOH program manager for National AIDS/Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention and Control Program Dr. Gerard Belimac warned that the virus that causes AIDS spreads faster through injecting drug users because four to 10 individuals often share an infected needle.

Belimac said injecting drug users also have sexual partners to whom they could transmit the virus.

The report showed that from January 1984 to June 2009, the DOH recorded 5,233 HIV cases, 847 of which have progressed into AIDS. A total of 809 cases were monitored this year alone.