Q. Isn’t it true that the occurrence of HIV/AIDS in our country is still low? How come there seems to be some concern about the incidence of the disease in the country among our health officials lately?

Joshua L., Makati City

A. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines has indeed remained low. While about 33 million people are currently infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide, in the Philippines, since 1984, when the first reported case of AIDS in the country was recorded, up to April this year, only 4,971 cases of HIV/AIDS have been documented by the HIV/AIDS registry of the Department of Health (DoH). Rather low for a country with a population of 90 million.

The registry does not accurately reflect the actual occurrence of the disease in the country because it is a passive one that relies only on reports of accredited hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and blood banks. But even in a worst-case scenario where the actual number of victims of the disease are 10 times the number reported, the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in our country can still be considered low.

However, the DoH figures are alarming when viewed from another perspective. In the last three years, there has been a steep increase in the number of new cases of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines. In 2007, only 342 new cases were recorded; this rose to 528 in 2008 and 835 in 2009. This year, from January to April alone, 547 new HIV/AIDS cases have already been reported. With this sudden and steep increase in the number of new cases, we can rightfully say that there is an ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Philippines.  This is an epidemic we can stem and the initial step to doing this is by increasing public awareness about the disease.  Surprisingly, Filipinos still poorly understand HIV/AIDS despite the widespread worldwide publicity about the disease.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a very fragile virus that can only survive within the body. Consequently, there are only a few ways by which it can be transmitted: by sexual contact with an infected person; by sharing needles and/or syringes (among drug users); by transfusion of contaminated blood or blood products; by being pricked with needles containing infected blood or by contact of broken skin or mucous membrane with infected blood (usually among health workers); and, by an infected woman to her baby, before or during birth or through breastfeeding.

HIV cannot be transmitted by simply talking to or being beside an HIV positive person. In fact, it cannot even be transmitted by something as intimate as kissing on the lips.

HIV is not a highly infectious virus. It has a low transmission rate. The probability of an HIV infected male infecting a female partner is only 0.1 to 0.2 percent per sexual intercourse. In contrast, the probability of an infected male transmitting gonorrhea to a woman partner is 50 to 70 percent per sexual intercourse.  The rate of transmission of HIV from an infected mother to her baby is relatively high but still less than 50 percent (variously estimated at 13 to 48 percent).

The only mode of transmission of HIV where the chance of acquiring the virus is nearly 100 percent per instance is in transfusion of contaminated blood. But this mode of transmission has already been practically eliminated because donor blood is now routinely tested for HIV before being transfused.

HIV/AIDS can be prevented by simply refraining from practices that puts one at risks of acquiring the disease, which for the average person basically means: 1) indulging only in monogamous sex, or short of that, by practicing safe sex, which essentially means using condoms during the sex act (incidentally, condoms are not 100 percent effective); and, 2) refraining from using illegal drugs.

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