QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista vowed on Friday to build more social hygiene clinics.
Plans are now underway for the construction of such a clinic and a male-focused sexual health-care facility at the city’s Libis district.
Bautista said the plan forms part of the city government’s effort to provide bigger prevention coverage for individuals at risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, especially those exposed to male-to-male sexual activity.
The city government is also seriously considering building two more teenage health quarters to provide young people with more access to medical services relevant to reproductive health and development.
Quezon City has about six city-run social hygiene clinics providing human immunodeficiency virus treatment and care services, three male-focused sexual health-care facilities, and one teenage health quarter.
The city government under Bautista has already invested more than P43 million for the city’s HIV program. Its investments cover improved service delivery to key populations and infrastructure development, to include additional social hygiene clinics and teen health quarters.
Based on the 2015 Integrated HIV Behavioral and Serologic Survey done in Quezon City, HIV prevalence is increasing among young men having sex with other men.