The number of individuals diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has reached more than 2,000 in the province and city of Iloilo.
The Department of Health (DOH-6) recorded 1,246 HIV cases in Iloilo province from 1986 to September 2022. The figure was the highest in the whole Western Visayas.
Iloilo City and Negros Occidental had the second-highest cases with 1,086 cases each, followed by Bacolod City, 834; Capiz, 524; Aklan, 414; Antique, 320; and Guimaras, 100.
All in all, the region logged 6,197 cases, of which 587 have died.
Majority or 97 percent (5,894) of those who acquired the disease were males and only 5 percent (302) were females.
Fifty-seven percent of the cases were attributed to sexual contact, mostly by males who have sex with males.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), HIV “targets the immune system and weakens people’s defense against many infections and some types of cancer that people with healthy immune systems can more easily fight off.”
The virus “can be transmitted via the exchange of a variety of body fluids from infected people, such as blood, breast milk, semen and vaginal secretions.”
“There is no cure for HIV infection. However, with increasing access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, including for opportunistic infections, HIV infection has become a manageable chronic health condition, enabling people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives,” WHO said.IMT
