3 Bulacan cities with most HIV cases in Region 3
Credit to Author: FREDERICK SILVERIO| Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2019 17:59:34 +0000
CITY OF MALOLOS: Three cities in Bulacan were among the top five cities and towns with most number of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cases in the said province.
This was announced by Nurse Hub Manager Ron Chie Santos of the Luntiang Silong HIV Unit of the Bulacan Medical Center, during the First LGBTQ+ Bulacan Leadership Summit 2019 held at the BarCie International Hotel in the City of Malolos on Friday.
The Luntiang Silong HIV Unit is the mother hub facility in the province, which conducts and offers HIV life time treatment and a free anti-retroviral therapy
Santos said, Bulacan has a total of 2,270 HIV cases from 1984 to May 2019, mostly from the cities of San Jose Del Monte with 257, Meycauayan with 123 cases, Malolos with 115 cases, and Sta. Maria and Marilao towns with 102 each.
The LGBTQ+ summit was part of the day-five program of the weeklong celebration of the Singkaban Festival in Bulacan headed by Gov. Daniel Fernando.
Based on a Department of Health (DOH) report, Bulacan also had the highest number of HIV cases at 39 percent in Central Luzon (Region 3), followed by Pampanga province at 29.2 percent.
The National Capital Region ranked first nationwide with the most number of HIV cases, followed by Region 4-A at second, Region 3 at third and Region 7 and 11 ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.
As of February this year, DOH said the number of HIV cases in the country reached 64,291 with an average of 38 affected per day. Of these, 60,239 cases or 94 percent were male, while 4,041 were female at 6 percent.
It was also learned that 18,232 cases were in the 15-to-24-year age group, while 32,786 cases were recorded in the 25-to-34-year age group.
During the summit, Santos said the Luntiang Silong HIV Unit gave on the spot HIV testing, using a rapid test devise, with results released in 15 minutes.
The result showed “reactive” for positive and “non-reactive” for negative.