Manila —In observance of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, 2020, the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines announced the launch of a new President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-funded program, which will begin this month. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. government has committed more than PHP875 million (US$18.2 million) over two years for U.S.-Philippines bilateral efforts, with implementation by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, and U.S. Department of Defense. The PEPFAR program will address the increasing number of people who are living with HIV in the Philippines, which has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region . The most recent data from the DOH-Epidemiology Bureau of the Philippines estimates that more than 110,000 Filipinos are living with HIV in 2020; 37,000 have not been diagnosed, and among those previously diagnosed, at least 18,500 still need
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