DOH: Nearly 1,500 HIV cases logged in January

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) stated that close to 1,500 cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases were logged last January.

Based on the latest DOH data, a total of 1,454 HIV cases were recorded in January. The average cases per day in the said month was at 46.

Thirty-nine deaths due to HIV infection were logged in January, the DOH said.

Sexual contact is the most common mode of transmission with 1,431 cases, the DOH said.

Six people acquired HIV infection through mother-to-child transmission and three cases through sharing of infected needles. There were 14 cases with no data on the mode of transmission.

The DOH said that the “regions with the most number of newly reported cases” were from the National Capital Region (397), Calabarzon (233), Central Luzon (194), Central Visayas (94), and Western Visayas (91).

“These regions comprised 69 percent of the total number of cases in this period,” the DOH said.

Kids, adolescents

Of the total HIV infection in January, 86 cases  were aged 19 and below, the DOH said.

Of the 86, the DOH said that 79 cases were adolescents aged 10 to 19 while seven cases were children “less than 10 years old.”

The DOH said that “almost all (78) of the reported adolescent cases acquired HIV through sexual contact.” The other case had no data on mode of transmission.

Meanwhile, six of the children aged two to nine acquired HIV through vertical transmission or mother-to-child, while one case had no data on the mode of transmission.

The first case of HIV infection in the country was reported in January 1984. SInce then, the Philippines has already logged a total of 110,736 cases.