MANILA, Philippines—The HIV hotline of party-list Akma-PTM was swamped with hundreds of calls within 24 hours of its launch last week, indicating a serious “thirst for information” among Filipinos on the dreaded infection.

Kevin Carreon, spokesman for Akma-PTM, said most of the callers were young people employed in industries outside the BPO (business process outsourcing) and call center sector which the party-list group represents.

Since Tuesday last week, calls topped more than 100 a day, Carreon said.

Eighty percent of callers were male, from 15 to 49 years old, and only 10 percent were employed in the BPO and call center companies, where more than half of the country’s recorded HIV infections were reported to have occurred.