Young People, OFWs with HIV on the Rise

More than 300 adolescents and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in just four months, the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) has reported.

From July to October, 355 adolescents and OFWs were reported to the HIV/AIDS and ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP), Philippine Star quoted the DOH report.

Of the 355, 122 are adolescents aged 10 to 19 years old. All but two of the adolescents got HIV through sexual contact; one was infected through mother-to-child transmission, while the other through sharing of infected needles, the report said.

Since 1984, the DOH has recorded 38,114 HIV cases in the country. And since 1984, a total of 1,358 adolescents were reported to HARP. Most of the cases or 86 percent were recorded from 2011 to 2016.

Seven percent of the total cases or 100 were children infected through mother-to-child transmission, said the news portal.

Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial was quoted as saying that the DOH is working to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

OFWs, meanwhile, comprised 233 cases reported to HARP and all of them were infected through sexual transmission.

More than half or 58 percent of the OFWs diagnosed with HIV belonged to 25 to 34 years age group, the report pointed out.

Ninety percent of the infected OFWs were male and many of them got the infection through male-to-male sex or having sexual contact with both male and female partners.

People who engaged in transactional sex accounted for 331 cases from July to October. Most of them or 96 percent were male whose ages ranged from 17 to 60 years, reported Philippine Star.

(Source: FilipinoTimes.ae)