HIV continues to be a major public health problem in Spain. Despite significant improvements in the treatment of the virus since the first cases were reported 40 years ago. Despite this, On average, more than 3,000 cases of HIV continue to be diagnosed in Spain.
Among these new diagnoses, 48.7% are diagnosed late, notablyin people over 50 years old (61.5%) and in heterosexual transmissions, where it affects 58.7% of men and 53.5% of women. “There is still a long way to go. PrEP helps, but not as much as we would have liked,” said Dr. Rosario Palacios, president of Gesida, during the presentation that took place this Tuesday in Zaragoza.
Faced with this large number of infections, experts argue that greater screening of the population must be carried out: “The first challenge we always face is to insist on screening, carrying out the diagnostic test without discrimination and in front of the entire population.” said Dr. Palacios.
It is for this reason that he placed particular emphasis on vulnerability of migrants, women and heterosexual practices “by not being aware of the risk of contracting HIV.” “Generalization and reaching a wider population through testing is essential to establish earlier diagnosis and attempt to eliminate this hidden bag of infected individuals who do not know they are infected and who are the ones who continue to fuel the epidemic,” he concluded.
This is why they consider prevention as one of the keys to reducing infection. In this way they gave some keys such as a increased use of condoms, prior use of retroviral therapy to prevent HIV infection and, most importantly, health education. “We must educate people to have safe relationships and this must be done in schools. Currently there is a real lack of training on infectious diseases,” explained Antonio Antela, co-president of the GeSida Congress.
The seven people cured of HIV were taken as an example to follow to reach the 39 million people who suffer from this disease in the world: “This is a very aggressive stem cell transplant. Thanks to this, they have opened new doors to research, although No date can be given, there is still a lot of work to be done.“, said María Salgado, co-president of the GeSida Congress.
Pasteur Institute
Increase in STIs
HIV is not the only topic covered in this presentation and the focus was on younger people, a group vulnerable to new sexually transmitted infections. Dr Palacios highlighted the new increase in cases of chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea (gonorrhea). As stated, Aragon is following this upward trend.
“It’s about young subjects, closely related to the use of “Gemsex”, which is the use of drugs in the context of sexual relations. This is an emerging problem in our environment, but one that must also be kept in mind,” the doctor stressed.
The XV GeSida Congress has been active since last Sunday and until Wednesday in the Aragonese capital and brings together more than 600 national and international experts to address the main advances and controversies in the fight against HIV.
