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 JAKARTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) -
The Philippines has posted a record number of new HIV infections,
prompting campaigners to call on authorities to step up efforts to
battle the potentially deadly disease.
A total of 841 new cases were recorded in June, the highest ever
monthly figure since the country's first reported case in 1984,
according to the health department's latest statistics released this
week.
Over 90 percent, or 777 cases, were transmitted through sexual
contact, the majority of them among men who have sex with men.
Injecting drug users accounted for 60 new cases and the remaining
four were cases of mother-to-child transmission.
New cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which can lead
to AIDS have been rising in the Philippines, bucking the
international trend which shows new infections falling.
"This is a cause of concern for us," Gerald Santos from Manila-based
campaign group Project Red Ribbon told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation on Tuesday.
"But to look at it with the glass half full, it also shows awareness
is at an all-time high, meaning more people are aware of HIV and are
getting tested."
However, he said the actual number of new infections could be
higher, as stigma associated with HIV prevents at-risk group from
getting tested.
"The government should double their efforts in spreading awareness
about HIV before it is too late," added Santos, the group's
treasurer.
The Philippines saw new infections double between 2001 and 2012,
according to a U.N. AIDS agency (UNAIDS) report in 2013 which showed
the epidemic was also expanding in Indonesia and Pakistan.
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Increasing infections among injecting drug users sharing
contaminated needles combined with low condom use and high fertility
rates have raised concern over "downstream" HIV infections - when
the virus spreads to people not typically at risk of HIV, like
children who acquire the virus through mother-to-child transmission.
There have been 34,999 HIV cases in the Philippines since
record-keeping started in 1984, with 83 percent diagnosed in the
last five years, according to the health department.
Globally, some 36.7 million people are living with HIV, according to
UNAIDS.
(Reporting by Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi, Editing by Emma Batha. Please
credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking,
property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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