HIV cases increased, says group

AIDS-Free Philippines (AFP) said the number of persons with HIV from January to August 2017 shows an increase from the whole of 2016.

A total of 153 persons with HIV (147 males and six females) and 14 persons with Aids were recorded for the first eight months of 2017.

For the entire 2016, persons with HIV totaled 151 (146 males and five females) while persons with Aids were 11.

AFP National Director Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer said the mode of transmission was mostly through sexual contact, where homosexual (MSM) contact was at 144 cases and heterosexual contact at nine for 2017.

AFP counted 122 cases for MSM and 20 for heterosexual contact in 2016.

There were 15 deaths counted for the first eight months 2017, while 12 deaths were recorded for the whole of 2016.

“Most of the people afflicted by HIV/Aids in this country are both in reproductive and productive age - reproductive means they are biologically capable of making a family and productive because they are the people working and supporting their families,” he said.

He said most of the patients are between the ages 19 and 38.

From 1985 to 2017, AFP has diagnosed 1,816 people with HIV (1,752 males and 64 females).

Out of the 1,816 people, 1,746 acquired the virus from sexual contact (1,295 were from male to male contact and 521 were from male to female contact) while the remaining 64 were intravenous drug users.