Giant Human ribbon for Manila's first AIDS Day celebration

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has declared every first Sunday of December is National AIDS Sunday here in the Philippines. While the event is going on, participants are in their red t-shirt and every individual forming a giant AIDS ribbon. A holy mass was offered during the event.

The Department of Health report show that from January to September 2011, a total of 1,669 Filipinos became infected with HIV, 71 progressed into AIDS and 30% of this year’s cases are from the 15-24 age-group, and 55% of this comes from the National Capital Region.

The health department also noted that since its registry for HIV/AIDS began in 1984, there were 7,684 HIV cases and 936 of them developed into AIDS.