First national forum on AIDS

First national forum on AIDS

SINGAPORE (DPA): A Singaporean man this week plans to become the first person with AIDS to identify himself publicly in the city, a member of the group Action for AIDS (AFA) said on Tuesday.

The man is set to come forward on Saturday at the country's first national forum on its growing AIDS problem, AFA secretary Brenton Wong said.

AIDS activists hope the man's move will be "a call to the government to get its act together in terms of legislation, subsidies and access to treatment", Wong said.

A total of 854 people were reported to have contracted AIDS in Singapore as of Aug. 31, since the first incidence was reported in 1985, according to the latest AFA statistics. More than 200 have died.

"Every year the rate increases by 20 to 30 percent," Wong said. Over 70 percent of the victims were believed to have been infected through heterosexual sex, he said.