MANILA: The House of Representatives has passed on second reading a bill mandating forceful new strategies to suppress the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic.
Bill 6751 directs the multi-sectoral Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) to draw up a fresh six-year program with definite targets to reverse the average 62-percent annual increase in new HIV cases in the country since 2010.
HIV is being spread primarily through high-risk sexual contact, predominantly male-to-male sex, and secondarily via needle sharing among illicit drug users, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
“We have very high hopes that that bill, once finally enacted with the help of the Senate, will take our fight against HIV/AIDS to the next level with highly concentrated actions,” Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association, one of bill’s authors, said yesterday.
The Philippine Star
