The Philippines now has 54 new HIV cases per day, up from “only” 13 in 2013, 31 in 2018, and 41 in 2022, and which – if anything – highlights the continuing worsening HIV situation of the country.
In March 2023, there were 2,078 confirmed HIV-positive individuals reported to the HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP) of the Department of Health (DOH), which was 35% higher compared to the same reporting period last year.
Key contents of the HARP for March 2023.
- Majority (95%) of the reported cases in March 2023 were male.
- The age of the reported cases ranged from 1 to 71 years old (median: 28 years).
- Among the newly diagnosed cases, 1,006 (48%) were 25-34 years old, 635 (31%) were 15-24 years old, 383 (19%) were 35-49 years old, 46 (2%) were 50 years and older, and eight (<1%) were less than 15 years oldS.
- There were 132 newly reported cases aged 19 and below, of which, 125 were adolescents aged 10 – 19 years old and seven were children less than 10 years old. Among the adolescents, one was 10 years old, 30 were 15-17 years old, and 94 were 18-19 years old at the time of diagnosis. Almost all (23, 98%) of the newly reported adolescent cases were infected through sexual contact (103 males had history of sex with another male, 10 through male-female sex, and 10 through sex with both male and female).
- There were 10 HIV-positive women aged 18 to 42 years old who were pregnant at the time of diagnosis.
- Sexual contact remained to be the predominant mode of transmission (2,025, 97%) while transmission through sharing of infected needles accounted for 19 cases (1%). Eight (<1%) were children who acquired HIV through mother-to-child transmission, and the remaining 26 (1%) had no data on MOT this reporting period.
- Among the newly reported cases who acquired HIV through sexual contact, 1,478 (73%) males reported history of sex with another male, 343 (17%) had sex with both males and females, while 204 (10%) through an opposite sex.
- More than half (1,195, 58%) of the total cases reported in March 2023 were from the National Capital Region [NCR], CaLaBaRZon [4A], and Central Visayas [7].
In March 2023, there were 1,429 people with HIV who were enrolled to treatment. To date, 67,194 people living withHIV (PLHIV) are on ART. And yet HIV still kills, with 57 reported deaths due to any cause among people with HIV in March. A total of 6,474 deaths were reported from January 1984 to March 2023.
