MANILA - Seventy Filipinos have tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in July 2009, bringing the total number of reported cases this year to 432, latest data from the Department of Health National Epidemiology Center revealed Saturday.

The DOH said the 70 new cases represented a 32 percent increase compared to the same period last year and is the highest number ever reported in a month.

Of the 70, 69 said they contracted HIV through sexual contact, with 38 percent of the cases saying they had bisexual contact. Most of the cases (87%) were males, of which two had full blown AIDS.

Twenty-one of the reported cases were overseas Filipino workers.

The DOH said it has recorded 4,021 HIV Ab seropositive cases since 1984, of which 817 had AIDS. At least 44 percent of the cases were between the ages 25-34. Ninety percent of the cases (3,609) got the virus through sexual contact while 1 percent (49) got it through mother-to-child transmission.

Danton Remoto, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Communications officer, said the new data the UNDP findings that overseas workers, particularly seafarers, and men having sex with men are now the most vulnerable groups to HIV in the region.

"One reason also why there is such a high number of OFWs being reported to have HIV is because they undergo mandatory testing before they are deployed. In the case of men having sex with men, there are several groups that encourage MSMs to undergo testing," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

He said another group that could be at risk from HIV/AIDS is wives and girlfriends of overseas workers or bisexual men. He said a recent United Nations report estimates that more than 90 percent of the 1.7 million women living with HIV in Asia got it from their husbands or partners in long-term relationships.

Remoto encouraged the Philippine government to spend more funds on HIV/AIDS education as well as ensure that there is amply supply of anti-retroviral drugs for HIV sufferers. Report by David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com