Alim alarmed over rising HIV cases in Iloilo City

Councilor Joshua Alim has expressed alarm over the rising cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Iloilo City.

HIV cases in the city, based on data from the Department of Health (DOH-6), reached 719.

The figure, recorded from January 1986 to August 2018, was the highest in Western Visayas.

“This is a serious matter and appropriate actions should be taken,” Alim said in a privilege speech delivered yesterday.

The councilor scheduled a conference next week to discuss ways to curb the spread of the disease in the highly urbanized city.

Alim said he would invite health experts to the conference tentatively set on Nov. 27.

“We will invite them so that we will be properly advised on and relay it to our constituents. We should be aware of this and we need to do something if we can.”

Last week, the DOH-6 revealed that it recorded 58 new cases of HIV in August this year.This is equivalent to one person getting HIV every 13 hours.

Fifty-five of these newly infected people were males and only three were females.

One was above 50 years old, 6 were aged between 35 to 49, 36 were from the 25-34 years old bracket, and 15 from the 15 to 24 years old bracket.

According to the DOH, 13 had clinical manifestations of being advanced HIV infections or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The rest were asymptomatic cases.

The latest figure constituted 6% of the total new HIV cases nationwide.

SOURCE: Iloilo Metropolitan Times

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