Duque backs HIV-AIDS info drive in youth elections’ platform

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Friday the upcoming Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) election can also be an opportunity for the youth to broaden the campaign on the public awareness on HIV-AIDS prevention in the country. (Photo: Department of Health (Philippines)/Facebook)

MANILA — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Friday the upcoming Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) election can also be an opportunity for the youth to broaden the campaign on the public awareness on HIV-AIDS prevention in the country.

“It might be appropriate in this upcoming barangay election to use the platform to make a broader campaign, with regards to how HIV-AIDS can be prevented,” Duque told a press briefing at the Department of Health (DOH) in Manila for the upcoming International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day on May 18.

Since the DOH is working with the National Youth Commission (NYC) in the HIV-AIDS prevention campaign, the health chief said he does not see anything wrong if SK candidates would use HIV awareness and prevention programs as one of their platforms.

Duque emphasized the importance of disseminating correct information on HIV prevention among young people.

“We have to be able to target this and increase the level of HIV transmission knowledge because quite unusually we found out relatively that the knowledge of HIV transmission seems to be very low among the MSMs (men having sex with men) subset of PLHIV (Persons Living with HIV),” he said.

He cited the importance of being aware about HIV-AIDS, transmission, prevention, detection through screening and linking them to proper care if they test positive.

From January 1984 to March 2018, the number of individuals in the Philippines diagnosed with HIV stood at 53,192.

Among those diagnosed from January 2001 to December 2005, the predominant age group was 35-49 years old. However, from January 2006 to March 2018, the trend shifted to the 25-34 age group.

The proportion of HIV positive cases in the 15-24 age group increased from 25 percent in 2006-2010 to 29 percent in 2011-2018.