The HIV situation remains bad in the Philippines.
There were 77 reported deaths due to any cause among people with HIV last June in the Philippines. This is according to the HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP), which reported that – among those who passed away – 72 were males and five were females.
This is more than double the May figure, when 30 deaths were reported.
For June’s 77 deaths, 15 (19%) were 15-24 years old, 39 (51%) cases were from 25-34 years old, 16 (21%) cases were from 35-49 years old age group, and seven (9%) case were 50 years and older. Ninety percent of the cases were reported to have acquired the infection through sexual contact (12 through male-female sex, 36 through male-to-male sex, and 21 through sex with both males and females), and 10% (8) of the cases were infected through sharing of needles.
The number of deaths may actually be higher because of under-reporting.
But to date, the HIV situation in the country continues to be bad, with 31 new HIV cases reported every day.
In June 2018, there were 993 new HIV cases reported to HARP. This is higher than the number reported in May, with the newly infected reaching 950. In April, it was “only” 924.
Among the new HIV cases, 18% (174 of the total) had clinical manifestations of advanced HIV infection (WHO clinical stage 3 or 4) at the time of diagnosis. Ninety-four percent (934) of the newly diagnosed were male. The median age was 27 years old (range: 3-73 years old). More than half (52%, 512) were 25-34 years old and 29% (287) were 15-24 years old at the time of testing.
As noted – and worth highlighting – is the age of those getting infected with HIV in the Philippines, with the affected populations getting younger.
In June 2018, 287 (29%) cases were among youth 15-24 years old; 95% were male. Almost all (99%, 285) were infected through sexual contact (23 male-female sex, 187 male-male sex, 75 sex with both males & females). Two cases had no data on mode of transmission.
There were 31 newly diagnosed adolescents 10-19 years old in June 2018. All were infected through sexual contact (5 male-female sex, 20 male-male sex, and six had sex with both males and females). There were two newly diagnosed child less than 10 years old and was infected through vertical/mother-to-child transmission.
One third (33%, 324) of the new HIV cases were from the National Capital Region (NCR). Region 4A (17%, 167 cases), Region 3 (12%, 123), Region 6 (7%, 66), Region 12 (6%, 58) and Region 7 (6%, 55) round off the top six regions with the most number of newly diagnosed cases for June, together accounting for 80% of the total.
Also, sexual contact remains the predominant mode of transmission (98%, 977). Among this, 88% were from males who have sex with males (MSM).
Other modes of transmission were needle sharing among injecting drug users (1%, 7) and vertical (formerly mother-to-child) transmission (<1%, 2).
There were seven cases that had no data on mode of transmission.
Among the newly diagnosed females for June, four were pregnant at the time of diagnosis, three of the cases were from NCR and one case from Region 7.
