WEAR red today.
Advocates in Davao City urged the public to wear red in today's World Aids Day (WAD) celebration at the Freedom Park starting 2:30 p.m. to signify the fight against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission.
“We are encouraging people to wear red in observance of World Aids Day,” Priscilla Senoc of the City Health Office (CHO) said, adding that it affects individuals who are HIV positive and the society as a whole.
She also encouraged the public to join the red march from Freedom Park to Rizal Park where activities will be held, such as sing and dance competitions.
The activities will be participated in by different government and non-government organizations.
“Please be there. Be with us in the fight against HIV and we hope that there should be no [more] stigma against people living with HIV,” Senoc said.
Meanwhile, Senoc said that with the intensification of HIV awareness, there was an increase of the number of people who went through HIV testing and that they also hope that the information would continually go down to the grassroots level.
“We hope that people should protect themselves because HIV is behavioral. And HIV has no cure so this is a message for people to change themselves especially towards sexual activities,” Senoc said.
She added, “Early detection, early treatment.” (LHC)