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Catriona Gray: 'HIV a health condition, not a person’s definition'
Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray visited LoveYourself, Inc., an organization that provides HIV screening, education and counselling, during the Miss Universe Charity Day on Wednesday and urged the public to get educated about HIV and to fight against the stigma surrounding it.
A LoveYourself volunteer-ambassador for two years now, Catriona said, “It shouldn't be associated with all this fear. It should be seen just like getting your heart check up, your blood sugar check up.”
“It’s just a health condition that doesn’t need to define people’s lives,” she added.
According to a statement from LoveYourself, the Epidemiology Bureau of the Department of Health said that an average of 32 HIV cases were reported every day.
In December 2018 alone, 877 Filipinos were diagnosed to contract HIV while a total of 11,427 were diagnosed in 2018 as someone living with HIV, said LoveYourself.
Catriona said that education and raising awareness about the truths about HIV can be greatly beneficial for people to prevent it from further spreading.
She said, “I’ve met people who don’t know that testing is free, that medication is free, counselling.”
Just last November, Catriona launched the pioneering HIV self-screening program dubbed as SelfCare. To be implemented this 2019, SelfCare allows people to have themselves screened for HIV at their own convenience and privacy.
According to LoveYourself, Catriona together with Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach will headline the Love Gala 2019, an event that gives recognition to the individuals who has made a difference in the HIV-AIDS advocacy in the Philippines. — LA, GMA News
For more information about HIV testing and LoveYourself, visit their Facebook page .
