City records 20 new HIV cases

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

TWENTY more Cebu City residents were confirmed to have contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) last month, prompting government doctors to warn drug users against the use of injectable drugs.

Records of the City Health Department’s (CHD) HIV/Aids Detection Unit showed that in 2011 alone, 76 cases of HIV have been recorded since January 1, which health officials consider “an alarming increase.”

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HIV is the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Aids), a fatal disease. It develops into Aids five to 10 years after the virus is contracted.

Of the 20 new cases recorded last month, 19 are drug users who are believed to have acquired the virus by sharing needles and syringes with other drug users. Another case is a man who had sex with another man.

Dr. Ilya Tac-an, city epidemiologist and head of the HIV/Aids Detection Unit, said the rising number of HIV cases in Cebu City is alarming, more so because the cases are concentrated in one group -- the drug users.

“Basta naa na gani HIV case among the injecting drug users, dali ra gyud mukatag because this is a group of people sharing the same needle, so dali gyud ang pagtakod-takod (When an injecting drug user is infected with HIV, the virus spreads easily because some of them share needles when injecting drugs),” she told Sun.Star Cebu.

In February and March this year, surveillance on 300 individuals injecting drugs showed that 159 or 53.3 percent are HIV positive.

They are from low income families, some of whom are students as young as 15 years old. They inject Nubain, a regulated drug.

“The rise of the HIV cases is considered alarming because if we are to meet the target of the Millennium Development Goals, we should only have a prevalence rate of less than five percent of the population at risk, but now it’s already at 53.3 percent. There is already an epidemic among the injecting drug users,” Tac-an said.

The 2011 figures brings to 316 the total number of HIV and Aids cases reported in Cebu City since the CHD’s surveillance began in 1989.

From 1989 to 2006, the CHD recorded an average of two cases a year. Five cases were recorded in 2007, seven in 2008, 10 in 2009 and 181 cases in 2010.

Since HIV infection does not manifest in any symptom, Tac-an urged drug users and people with risky sexual behavior (those who have multiple sex partners, or those whose partners have multiple sex partners) to undergo HIV test regularly so the infection can be detected early.

This is also a way of containing the spread of the virus, she said.

Tac-an urged drug users not to share needles and syringes and for sexually active individuals to practice safe sex by using condoms to prevent HIV and Aids infection.

There are no clear symptoms for Aids, but most individuals living with Aids suffer from recurring fever, cough and rapid loss of weight. In its later stage, other infection and complications may set in and develop into tuberculosis or pneumonia.

Meanwhile, the City Epidemiology Statistics and Surveillance Unit (Cessu) reported 1,246 cases of dengue virus so far this year, with nine deaths. The last death due to dengue was recorded last August 30 yet.

Assistant City Epidemioligist Durinda Macasocol said this means the dengue-prevention programs of the City Government are effective.

Aside from giving public schools treated nets that kill mosquitoes, the Department of Science and Technology also distributed to selected barangays a device that traps the eggs of mosquitoes. It comes with an insect growth regulator, which prevents the eggs from developing into adult mosquitoes that may carry the dengue virus.