DOH reports 900 new HIV cases in April

MANILA, Philippines — More than 900 new cases of HIV, including four pregnant women, were documented by the Department of Health (DOH) in April, a report showed yesterday.

Based on the HIV/AIDS Registry of the Philippines prepared by DOH-Epidemiology Bureau, there were 924 cases reported last April. This is higher than the 628 cases recorded in April last year.

The registry showed that of the 924 cases, 179 were already showing clinical manifestations of advanced HIV infection or AIDS. There were 66 deaths.

These new cases have brought to 54,332 the total number of HIV cases, including 5,700 that have advanced to AIDS, since the country began recording cases in January 1984. ?The DOH said sexual contact remains the predominant mode of transmission, accounting for 899 cases. Of this number, 774 were males who have sex with males (MSMs) while 11 were infected drug users who shared contaminated needles.

There was one case of mother-to-child transmission while another five cases have no data on mode of transmission. 

The youngest case involved a 16-year-old, while the oldest was 69. A total of 858 cases were males. 

“Among the newly diagnosed females this month, four were pregnant at the time of diagnosis. Nine of the cases were from Metro Manila, three from Region 7  and one each from Region 3 and Region 4A,” the DOH noted. 

One third or 282 cases of new infections came from the National Capital Region (NCR); followed by Calabarzon (164); Central Luzon  (117); Central Visayas (71); Davao Region (50) and Western Visayas (44).