THE Department of Health said Wednesday there were 844 new human immunodeficiency virus cases recorded in the HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP) last January.
“This is 5 percent higher compared to [the figure in] the same period last year, which is 804,” the HARP said in its report.
It is also the highest so far since 1984, when the first case of HIV was reported.
According to HARP, 96 percent of the cases were male and that the patients’ ages ranged from three years to 66 years, with a median age of 27 years. More than half belong to the 25 to 34 age group and 31 percent to the 15 to 24 age bracket.
Metro Manila registered the most number of cases with 307 (36 percent), followed by Calabarzon with 151 (18 percent); Central Luzon with 91 (11 percent); Central Visayas with 62 (7 percent); and Davao with 50 (6 percent).
Some 826 of the patients contracted the virus through sexual contact, while 16 caught it through needle-sharing with injecting drug users (IDU). There were two cases of mother-to-child transmission.
A total of nine pregnant women were among those who tested positive for HIV, seven of whom were from the NCR, one from the Ilocos region, and one from Central Visayas.
The number of cases has spurred the National Youth Commission to call the development a youth crisis because at least one young Filipino is infected with HIV every hour.
National Youth Commission chairman Aiza Seguerra said around 24 young Filipinos are infected with the virus every single day and 85 percent of new daily infections are accounted for by infections among young Filipinos aged 15 to 30.
“Of 28 Pinoys who get infected, 24 to 26 of them are from the youth. [Around] 62 of new infections [are from]…15 to 24 years old,” she said.
The increase in the number of Filipinos living with HIV has been exponential in recent years, and Seguerra attributes this to greater awareness and testing among the young.
In the hopes of stemming the increase in HIV prevalence among young Filipinos, Seguerra said the NYC is now pushing for the lowering of the age limit for obtaining HIV testing without parental consent to 15 years old.