Capiz to organize AIDS council
Roxas City -- A council on Human Immunodeficiency Virus -- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) will be organized by the provincial government of Capiz in support to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) aimed to combat the disease by year 2015.
Capiz Gov. Vicente Bermejo has issued an executive order for the organization of the council in response to the MDG and the country's declaration of commitment on HIV/AIDS.
"The Philippines is one of the member states that committed itself to the principles and targets of the declaration of commitment on HIV/AIDS, and pledged to the global effect to reverse the tide of the pandemic," stated one of the reasons in the order.
Dr. Evelyn Bolido, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI)/HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator for Capiz, said a plan to conduct a planning workshop to organize council members and formulate a 2007 workplan, among others.
The province has only registered two out of 43 People Living With HIV-AIDS (PLWHA) in Western Visayas from year 2003 to 2006.
The statistics only pertains to those who have surfaced and have availed themselves of the services of the Department of Health (DOH) and some non-government organizations (NGO).
The data also showed that 14 deaths have been recorded in the DOH-6 AIDS Registry listing 29 PLWHAs left as of 2006 said Dr. Bolido.
The local government units of Mambusao and Roxas City have already established their respective AIDS councils aside from the HIV/AIDS Core Teams in two provincial government hospitals.
(PIA)