415 new HIV cases recorded in May – DOH

MANILA, Philippines - At least 415 new human immunodeficiency virus cases were recorded in May, the highest since the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry was set up in 1984, an official said yesterday.

“This is the highest monthly number of new HIV cases ever,” DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag posted on his Twitter account @erictayagsays.

The number brings to 1,892 the total number of HIV/AIDS cases this year and to 13,954 since 1984.

The figure is 52 percent higher than the 273 cases, 19 of which were full-blown AIDS, recorded in May 2012. 

Sexual contact was the mode of transmission for 409 cases, while six cases were through needle sharing among drug users. Eighty-six percent of the cases involved men who had sex with males.

The National Capital Region accounted for 53 percent of the cases, followed by Region 4-A, 13 percent; Region 11, 10 percent; Region 3, 8 percent; Region 7, 4 percent, and Region 6, three percent.

The registry showed that of the 1,892 cases this year, 1,844 were infected through sexual contact – 311 heterosexual, 945 homosexual and 588 bisexual. Forty-eight got the disease by sharing contaminated needles.

Of the 13,594 HIV cases recorded since 1984, 12,322 have progressed into AIDS. Their ages ranged from one to 81 years, with age group 25 to 29 accounting for 30 percent of the cases.

The registry also showed that 12,649 were infected through sexual contact; 488 through needle sharing among drug users; 59, mother-to-child transmission; 20, blood transfusion, and three through needle prick injury.

No data is available for 375 of the cases. 

New WHO guidelines

As this developed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued new HIV treatment guidelines recommending early antiretroviral therapy (ART).      

In a statement, WHO said studies show that early ART will help people with HIV to live longer, healthier lives and substantially reduces the risk that they could infect other people.

The strategy is expected to avert more than three million deaths and prevent 3.5 million new HIV infections until 2025.

WHO said that some 9.7 million people took ART by the end of 2012.

WHO director general Margaret Chan said the guidelines “represent another leap ahead in a trend of ever-higher goals and ever-greater achievements.”

“With nearly 10 million people now on antiretroviral therapy, we see that such prospects – unthinkable just a few years ago – can now fuel the momentum needed to push the HIV epidemic into irreversible decline,” she said.