September 2019 HIV cases reach 1,038: DOH

February 8, 2020

More than 1,000 new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases have been recorded during September, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Based on the September 2019 HIV/AIDS Registry of the Philippines, there were 1,038 new HIV cases, surpassing 954 recorded in September 2018.

For January-September 2019, there are 9,749 new HIV cases, including 1,693 AIDS cases, and 564 deaths.  Since 1984, there have been 71,778 HIV cases, with 8,791 AIDS cases and 3,617 deaths. 

Of the total September 2019 cases,  nineteen percent or 196 cases had clinical manifestations of being advanced HIV infection or acquired immunodeficiency deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Thirty-five also died from HIV/AIDS for September, DOH said.

Sexual contact remains the predominant mode of transmission with 1,011 (97 percent), of which 875 (86 percent) are males who have sex with males. 

Male-to-male sex accounted for 617 cases; followed by 258 from those having sex with both male and female; and 136 from male-to-female sex.

Other mode of transmission were needle sharing among injecting drug users accounted for 17 cases.

There was also one case of mother-to-child transmission while another nine cases had no data on the mode of transmission, said the health department.

One third (33 percent, 342) were from the National Capital Region (NCR), followed by Calabarzon (17 percent, 172), Central Luzon (11 percent, 113), Central Visayas (8 percent, 85), and Western Visayas (6 percent, 65) comprised the top  five regions with the most number of newly diagnosed cases for the month. 

Sixty-seven overseas Filipino workers were diagnosed with HIV with all infected through sexual contact (21 male-female sex, 33 male-male sex, and 13 sex with both males and females).  DMS