(Manila)  The Department of Health (DOH) has said Internet social networking sites have provided a venue for young people to find partners in risky sex that usually leads to cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in the country.

It further warned that if the country failed to address the growing HIV-AIDS problem, the Philippines could face an epidemic in due time.

At Monday’s Kapihan sa Manila forum at the Manila Hotel, Dr. Eric Tayag of the DOH National Epidemiology Center (NEC) revealed that 126 new cases of AIDS were listed in the national AIDS registry in December 2009, “the highest" number of cases reported within a month "in the past 25 years” since the first case was reported in 1984.

The new cases brought the total number of HIV-AIDS patients to 835 in 2009, the highest accumulation of cases within a single year in the Philippines since 1984, according to DOH.

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