National HIV / AIDS strategy.

While HIV/AIDS has been categorized as a "global epidemic" by the World Health Organization, the Philippines has yet to treat the disease as an emergency despite the fact that statistics indicate that an estimated 50,000 Filipinos may be infected already. The Philippines has, however, created a national advisory board, The Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), to recommend national HIV/AIDS policies and strategies. The PNAC has drafted a National HIV/AIDS Strategy Document to provide guidance for a unified national response to the epidemic. During 1995, this strategy was submitted to review at a series of workshops with government officials, health care workers, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and affected people. The workshops opened with a description of the state of the epidemic in the Philippines, the structure of the draft document, and the purpose of the workshop. Participants then formed small groups to consider various aspects of the strategy workshop and report their conclusions at a plenary session. After the series of consultations was completed in August, a national consensus and validation workshop was planned for late October to prepare the draft document for its final endorsement by the PNAC and presentation to the President in November.