MANILA (AFP) - Sweden and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)are to establish an HIV/AIDS Trust Fund to help raise regional awareness of the disease, the Swedish ambassador to the Philippines Annika Markovic announced.
Markovic said the Swedish government has pledged 14 million dollars to the trust which will be administered by the ADB. Stockholm and the ADB will formally establish the trust at a two-day forum on HIV/AIDS in the Philippines later this month.
Speaking at a joint press conference to announce the forum, Markovic said: "Our aim is to bring together the various sectors of society to look at ways in which HIV/AIDS can be fought in the Philippines." She said the trust would not only help countries like the Philippines, where the officially recorded incidence of HIV/AIDS is quite low, but other countries in the region.
Austere Panadero, vice-chairman of the Philippine National AIDS Council, said that since Manila's first reported AIDS case in 1984 some 2,200 cases of HIV and AIDS have been reported in the country.
He said 69 percent were aged between 20 and 39 and 63 percent were male. "Sexual intercourse remains the leading mode of HIV transmission in the Philippines, accounting for 92 percent of the cases," he said. And he noted that returning overseas Filipino workers account for 33 percent of the reported cases.
Jean-Marc Olive, World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in the Philippines, said: "There can be no place for complacency." "While the official numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines is extremely low compared with other parts of the region, we need to know what the reality is on the ground." He said some estimates put the number of HIV infections in the Philippines anywhere between 6,000 and 10,000. "The infection rate is increasing as more Filipinos return home with HIV. We even have children now infected. "What we are seeing now are some very serious warning flags being raised. That is why this forum is so important ... action has to be taken now. "There is no point in leaving it until it is too late."
The forum is being jointly organised by the Philippine National Aids Council, the WHO, the ADB, UNAIDS and the Swedish government.
Source : http://www.afp.com
