CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga (PIA) -- Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Central Luzon stressed the importance of information dissemination to win the fight against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB).
 
During the first leg of the Kilos Kabataan Kontra HIV at TB webinar which was attended by Pampanga youth leaders, PIA Regional Director William Beltran said it is crucial to provide the public with the correct information about these illnesses, especially on the preventive and curative aspect.
 
“The burden of these illnesses remain large despite us having measures to combat these diseases in place because communities remain not empowered to engage in this fight. While the government has been investing to combat TB and HIV in our country, we can also do our share through engaging in TB and HIV advocacy to help create a social environment where stigma and discrimination associated with these are eliminated and where measures to prevent and/or cure these diseases are highly trusted and accepted,” he said.
 
Beltran added that there is also a need to look at the healthcare system comprehensively and earn the trust of the people by providing relevant information.

“Being the primary communication arm of our government, we [PIA] see communication as imperative towards this objective. We need to make our people informed and empowered to have for themselves a sense of safety whether that be in Covid right now, or whether that be in tuberculosis, HIV, or other threats to human health,” he said.
 
With this, Beltran challenged the youth to help the government communications sector to propagate relevant and useful information, not just on TB and HIV, but information that could somehow ease the burden of the people in general.
 
“We are really banking on the capacity and ingenuity of the youth to utilize their respective platforms for this advocacy. Always believe that no matter how small your contribution could be, even just with the power of information, it could make a difference in our society,” he said.
 
Kilos Kabataan Kontra HIV at TB is a series of webinars co-organized by PIA and United States Agency for International Development TB Platforms in partnership with Department of Health and the Sangguniang Kabataan Federations of Central Luzon. (CLJD/MJSC-PIA 3)