HIV cases up 17% due to unsafe sex – DOH

MANILA, Philippines - More Filipinos are getting infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) due to unsafe sex, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.

The latest HIV/AIDS Registry of the DOH showed a 17-percent increase in the number of recorded HIV cases in the country, from 509 cases in August last year to 598 in August this year.

The DOH said that 94.64 percent of the new cases posted in August were acquired through sexual transmission, with 469 cases or 83 percent involving men having sex with men.

Homosexual contact accounted for 290 cases, 179 from bisexual contact, and 72 cases from heterosexual contact. 

Sixty overseas Filipino workers got infected due to sexual transmission.

Injecting drug use accounted for 28 new cases, while three cases involved mother-to-child transmission.

The DOH also said 39 of the new cases have progressed into full-blown acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Of the total, 15 died due to infection.

The National Capital Region (NCR) had the biggest share of new cases with 225 or 38 percent, followed by Calabarzon with 99 cases or 17 percent and Central Visayas with 54 cases.

The new cases in August brought to 5,209 the number of HIV cases recorded in the first eight months of 2015. Of the total, 178 have died while 319 developed into AIDS.

The country has recorded 27,736 HIV cases, including 2,368 AIDS and 1,296 deaths since 1984.