More and more people are being recorded to be living with HIV largely due to greater awareness and access to treatment.
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At the end of 2010, based on United Nations (UN) AIDS report, an estimated 34 million people were living with HIV worldwide up by17 percent since 2001.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening infections. It may be transmitted through blood transfusion, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the final stage of HIV disease which causes severe damage to the immune system.
The significant expansion of access to an antiretroviral treatment also leads to reduction in AIDS-related death, which fell to 1.8 million in 2010, down from a peak of 2.2 million in the mid-2000s.
According to UNAIDS, much of the success was experienced in the past two years when rapid scale-up of access to treatment occurred. Last year alone 700,000 AIDS-related deaths were averted.
This year, as World AIDS Day on December 1 is commemorated, the celebration focuses on the theme, ”Getting to Zero….Zero New HIV infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS-related Deaths.”
For Baguio, the celebration of World AIDS Day will be spearheaded by the City’s AIDS Watch Council (AWAC) headed by its president Dr. Charles Cheng and the council’s secretariat City Health Office Reproductive Health and Wellness Center (RHWC).
Local celebration is slated this December 2 and will kick-off with a parade at 8:00 in the morning from session road en route to the Baguio Convention Center for the program.
Congressman Bernardo Vergara and Mayor Mauricio Domogan, along with some other city officials were invited as guests.
A person living with HIV is also expected to share a testimony and give message as well.
Simultaneous with the celebration will be the 6th Annual HIV/AIDS Conference for the members of the association of bar and night establishments in the city.
This year’s HIV/AIDS Conference adopts the theme, “Moving Towards CHANGE….Towards CLEAN ENTERTAINMENT II”.
The City Health Services Office RHWC headed by Dr. Celiaflor Brillantes, is the lead office that handles the registration and issuance of health permits of the city’s night establishment employees and entertainers.
Since AWAC started its HIV/AIDS surveillance in 1992, through the RHWC as its secretariat, 47 cases of HIV/AIDS has already been recorded in the city where 17 of them already died. Of the total reported cases, 33 were males while 14 were females.
According to Brillantes, the group of Men having Sex with men or MSM is currently the most vulnerable sector to acquire HIV, as for this year alone all five of the six cases recorded were MSMs. - (PIA / by Lito Dar)
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