MANILA, Philippines—Eighteen new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which could lead to the fatal Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), are diagnosed every day, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
The DOH said the number of cases reported daily increased from only nine cases a day in 2012.
Data from the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry showed that for the month of January, there were 536 new cases of HIV, a 20-percent increase from figures seen in the same period in 2014.
Out of 536 cases, 61 were already full-blown AIDS, while majority of the cases were still asymptomatic at the time of reporting.
There were 14 reported deaths for the month of January, with 93 percent of them males and 64 percent belonging to the age group 25 to 34 years old.
HIV leads to AIDS, a condition in which the body’s immune systems are attacked and damaged by the virus, ultimately leading to death.
The number of new cases brings to 18,639 the total reported HIV cases from January 2010 to January 2015, and to 23,063 cases from January 1984 to January 2015.
DOH records showed that most of the cases or about 86 percent of the sexually transmitted cases were among males who either had unprotected sex with males or shared needles with drug users.
The highest number of reported cases for January 2015 were from the National Capital Region (225 cases), Calabarzon (79 cases), Central Luzon (53), and Davao (34). One hundred forty-five cases came from the rest of the country.
Ninety-five percent of the cases were males, of which 53 percent belonged to the 25-34 years old age group, the DOH said.
Of the 536 new cases, 45 cases involved overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Majority of them were males and all of the cases were infected through unprotected sex, said the DOH report. SM