QC launches AIDS drive

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has intensified the city’s information drive against Human Immune Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS).

The mayor has mobilized the city health centers in coordination with various non-government organizations led by the Kabalikat Foundation to conduct massive educational and information drives to help people avoid HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

During a recent orientation forum on sexually-transmitted diseases and HIV, Dr. Ricardo Mateo Jr., HIV/AIDS specialist and a resident advisor of the Department of Health, reported that there are some 40 million people living with AIDS worldwide.

Of this number, 37.3 million are adults while 2.7 million are children. AIDS claimed some three million deaths last year, Mateo said.

In the Philippines, more than 5,000 people are afflicted with the disease. Of this number, less than one percent is positive of HIV in Quezon City, one of the first three areas of surveillance conducted by the Kabalikat Foundation. The two others were the cities of Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.