HIV cases double in 2 years

NEW cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the country in 2012 increased to 3,338, up 200 percent compared to the figures gathered two years ago, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

According to the Philippine HIV/AIDS Registry Report, there were only 1,591 new HIV cases recorded in the whole of 2010.

The December 2012 figure is also less than 1,000 cases than the recorded 2,349 new HIV cases reported in 2011.

HIV cases that progressed into full-blown AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome cases also went up from only 29 in 2010, to 110 in 2011, and now to 186 in 2012.

For the whole of last year, HIV cases sourced from sexual contact accounted for 3,159 cases, of which 1,687 are from homosexual contact, 992 from bisexual contact, and 480 from heterosexual contact; 175 from injecting drug use; and four from mother-to-child transmission.

Among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), there were 342 found to have acquired HIV last year with all coming from sexual contact.

As for the December 2012 data alone, the DOH reported that there were 293 new HIV cases reported.

"The figure is nine percent higher compared to the same period last year (2011), which was at 268," said the DOH.

Of these, 14 have already developed into full-blown AIDS cases.

Sexual transmission remains to be the most common mode of transmission of HIV accounting for 288 of them while injecting drug users were responsible for the other five cases.

One hundred thirty-seven were from homosexual contact, followed by 101 from bisexual contact, and 50 from heterosexual contact.

Twelve OFWs were also found to have acquired the virus all still coming from sexual contact.

Overall, there are now 11,702 HIV cases in the country since 1984 with 1,168 already considered as AIDS. (HDT/Sunnex)